Back Pain? Find Out the Back Surgery Types That May Be Recommended

If you suffer from back pain, you’re not alone. Sixteen million adults experience persistent or chronic back pain that limits their daily activities. Common causes of back pain include:

• Lumbar (lower back) muscle strains
• Ruptured discs or disc diseases
• Discogenic back pain
• Scoliosis
• Spondylolisthesis (where vertebrae slip out of position)
• Spinal stenosis (where your spine narrows and puts pressure on nerves)
• Arthritis
• Osteoporosis

Fortunately, here at North Carolina Specialty Hospital, treating back pain is something that we help patients with every day. Unless it is an emergency requiring immediate surgery for back pain, we’ll first recommend treatment combinations of rest, ice, heat, spinal injections, physical therapy, over-the-counter pain medication, diet, or exercise to help manage and reduce your pain.

Sometimes, however, people require surgical intervention if these conservative treatments don’t work or don’t work well enough. If that happens to you and surgery for back pain is recommended, don’t worry. You can relax knowing your North Carolina Specialty Hospital orthopedic doctors are board-certified experts who use the latest technology (including robotics) and specialized spinal instrumentation to treat cervical, thoracic, and lumbar disorders.

What Back Surgery Types are Used to Treat Back Pain?

At North Carolina Specialty Hospital, we know that each patient’s situation, needs, and way of life are unique and require a tailored, individualized approach. We offer back surgery options to treat the most and least common causes of severe back pain. Back surgeries performed include:

• Laminotomy, Foraminotomy, and Laminectomy: These procedures remove bone from the spine to relieve pressure on the spinal cord and nerve roots caused by spinal stenosis.
• Discectomy: This procedure removes parts of or the entire ruptured or herniated disc when it puts pressure on and irritates nerves.
• Disc Replacements: This procedure replaces a worn or damaged disc between vertebrae with an artificial disc made of metal or combined metal and plastic.
• Anterior Lumbar Interbody Fusion (ALIF): This procedure is a type of spinal fusion surgery through the front (anterior) used to stabilize a painful segment in the lower back, usually caused by a lumbar degenerative disc disease or spondylolisthesis.
• Posterior Thoracic and Lumbar Fusion: This procedure uses a bone graft on an area of the spine through surgery through the back (posterior) to cause the bone to grow between vertebrae segments to stop painful motion there.
• Kyphoplasty: This procedure inserts a special cement into and around damaged vertebrae to strengthen them and reduce pain.
• Transforaminal Lumbar Interbody Fusion (TLIF): This procedure stabilizes the spinal vertebrae in the lower back, fusing them to create solid bone that eliminates movement and reduces pain and nerve irritation.
• Extreme Lateral Lumbar Interbody Fusion (XLIF): This procedure fuses the lumbar spine (from the side rather than through the front or back) to treat disorders such as lumbar degenerative disc disease, spondylolisthesis, scoliosis, lumbar disc herniations, and stenosis.
• Anterior Cervical Discectomy and Fusion (ACDF): This procedure is a type of neck surgery that removes damaged discs to relieve spinal cord or nerve root pressure.

If surgery for back pain is recommended for your condition, you can trust that the orthopedic experts at North Carolina Specialty Hospital “have your back.” You’ll experience the most appropriate treatment, the latest technologies, and the best results. We’re with you from initial diagnosis through treatment, surgery, and recovery—until you’re back to living your life to its fullest, pain-free.

Bring Your Back Pain to North Carolina Specialty Hospital

There’s no need to suffer from back pain when we can give you all of the medical and/or surgical help you need. After all, we’ve been helping North Carolinians stay healthy since 1926. To schedule a consultation, look on our Physicians page under Orthopedics and click on a doctor’s photo to make an appointment from his or her personal page. Or contact us.