One question that is in a lot of patients' minds when they go to a chiropractor is, “Is this potentially a surgical case?” So, I wanted to go through a couple of my guidelines on how that decision might get made.
One question that is in a lot of patients' minds when they go to a chiropractor is, “Is this potentially a surgical case?” So, I wanted to go through a couple of my guidelines on how that decision might get made.
We will be talking specifically about low back cases here, but for a little background and information sometimes in very severe cases surgery might be indicated and it could help the situation out quite a bit. It can also sometimes make matters worse. I like to think of a decision to go to surgery or not as being very much a collaborative decision between a patient, their medical care team, their chiropractor (if they have one), and more often than not, their family.
Here are my rules of thumb when I think low back disc surgery might be indicated.
If someone has an MRI that shows a severely ruptured disk and has been experiencing pain on a scale of 8,9, or 10 (on a 0-10 scale) for over two weeks with conservative care (non-surgical care such as physical therapy or chiropractic care) and you are still in agony then surgery might be indicated and something that might fix that problem.
If someone with a ruptured disc has been experiencing pain on a scale of 5, 6, or 7 for months with conservative care then surgical correction might be in order.
If someone has been having ongoing back pain and receiving conservative care but begins to notice muscle loss or muscle weakness. The nerves in our body tell our muscles, organs, and everything else what to do. So, if the nerves from the low back that go to the muscles in the legs are compromised there might be muscle wasting over time. That would be an indication that they might be helped by going to a surgeon's office and talking about their options.
If someone has a ruptured disk in their back that is so bad that they have lost bladder and bowel function and they can’t feel anything below the waste. That is an Emergency Room situation and that patient will be receiving spinal surgery immediately.
If you would like to avoid spinal surgery, the best thing that you can possibly do is go to a chiropractor and follow their recommended care plan.
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