What is Failed Back Surgery Syndrome?

Did you know that each year, approximately 600,000 back operations are performed in the United States? Did you also know that up to half of these often-unnecessary surgeries wind up leaving the patient with what has become known as “Failed Back Surgery Syndrome”? What’s interesting is, no other surgery has such a syndrome! Have you ever heard of “Failed Appendectomy Surgery Syndrome”?

Back Surgery

Failed Back Surgery Syndrome results when a patient experiences pain or some type of physical incapacitation from a back condition that was supposed to have been relieved by surgery.

Poor judgment on the part of the attending physician who recommended the surgery in the first place is often the cause. Spine, one of the world’s most respected medical journals, reported that more than 90% of all patients with herniated discs would get better without surgery by undergoing “conservative” chiropractic care. Spine goes on to say that, "Over time, most patients with disc herniations recover with or without surgery, so that outcomes after five years are similar when surgical and non-surgical approaches are compared..." So what Spine is actually saying here is – it makes no difference whether you do or don’t have the surgery, the results are the same!

Chiropractic care may help you avoid unnecessary, and unsuccessful, back surgery. Already suffering from Failed Back Surgery Syndrome? We can probably help with that too. Call our office and find out!

Dr. Tiffany Asks some important questions of interest to Peoria residents - Chiropractor Peoria Dr. Tiffany Asks...

Why is a "slipped disc" unlikely?
Separating each spinal vertebra is a disc. Its fibrous outer ring holds in a jelly-like material. Because of the way a disc attaches to the spinal bones above and below it, it can't actually "slip." However, a disc can bulge, tear, herniate, thin and collapse. But it can't slip.
Are aches and pains good or bad?
While aches or pains may be unpleasant, they're merely warning signs. As a Peoria chiropractor, I see this all the time. The pain is not the problem! It just means a limitation has been reached and something needs to change. That's when we get to work correcting the underlying cause.