Sciatica – Surgery

Transcript

When surgery is necessary, and I emphasize the necessary part because not everybody needs or should have surgery. But there are a variety of, particularly for neurogenic nerve causes of Sciatica, a variety of different surgeries. It may be as simple as an outpatient hour surgery in which a small one inch incision is made for removal of a disc rupture or it may be a longer surgery which may have a six or seven inch incision for someone who has multiple levels of lumbar spinal stenosis seen often in the elderly. Many of these procedures now are done as outpatients rather than as inpatients where people can go home the same day, not have to spend a night in the hospital. The recovery is variable. Many times for the patients who have had outpatient surgeries, going home the same day, they’re up and walking the same day, they’re driving at the end of a week. For some of the more extensive surgeries, people may need to be in a brace for several months, if they’ve had fusion procedures. Fusion is reserved for those patients who either have breaks in their spine or have a spine, which is not aligned properly and would otherwise sort of fall apart if they didn’t have those stabilization devices.