More Than One-Third of Ruptured Disc Surgery Patients Have Remained Disabled
‘The surgery seemed to relieve my lower back pain and pressure for a few weeks,’ a housewife said, ‘but it has left me mostly disabled. I wish that a program of exercises for lower back pain had been emphasized more.’ Five years after surgery, this woman is still struggling to be able to function even modestly as a mother and wife. Her experience typifies the disastrous long-term outcome of more than one-third of people in the US survey who had surgery for a ruptured disc.
Another young housewife talked about the incapacitation she has lived with: ‘When you start thinking about back surgery, doctors don’t tell you, but I know for a fact, that one operation can lead to the need for another. I have been unable to work six of the last twelve years. A partial discectomy just relieved the pain for a couple of weeks.
Then I had microsurgery, which was supposed to remove the rest of the disc material that hadn’t been taken out during the first operation. The microsurgery didn’t work. Then, a while later, an orthopedic surgeon removed two ruptured discs and fused my vertebrae. This last operation helped the most, but I continue to have back pain, sciatica and muscle spasms.’