What You Need to Know about Spinal Fusion Surgery

From discomfort to limited mobility, back pain can impact your life on a daily basis. When you are living with pain in your lower back, lumbar spinal fusion may be a viable option for you. This blog post will cover some of the basic information you need to know if you are considering this type of surgery.

Lumbar spinal fusion is a procedure in which a surgeon creating an incision and using screws to fuse the vertebrae bones together, so that they may grow properly. Sometimes, your surgeon may need to remove invertebrate discs or bone spurs to alleviate your back pain. For some patients, a minimally invasive lumbar spinal fusion may be an option, which consists of smaller incisions and less soft tissue damage resulting in a speedier healing process.

Minimally invasive lumbar spinal fusion offers several distinct advantages to the patient. Since the technique allows the muscles to be gently pushed out of the way during surgery, there is typically less muscle damage. Also, since the incision is small, patients usually incur less blood loss and have less need for blood transfusions and a lower risk of infection.

Regardless of the type of surgery, a lumbar spinal infusion involves the following process:

• Adding bone graft to a segment of the spine
• Setting up a biological response so that the bone graft will grow between the two vertebral elements to create a bone fusion
• Finally, the boney fusion, which results in one fixed bone replacing a mobile joint and stops the motion at that joint segment

Are you suffering from lower back pain? Perhaps spinal fusion surgery can provide the pain relief and mobility needed to get back to your daily life. Please contact Dr. Sharma to discuss whether this procedure may be right for you.