Many Americans experience some sort of back pain in their lives. Some pain and/or injury may be corrected with physical therapy and over the counter medications. Others may need more invasive solutions including surgery. With modern technology there are more options of which type of surgery which would work best for the problem. People dealing with lower back pain whether chronic or new and have had a decrease in motion along with pain may consider spinal fusion or disk replacement surgery. The latter is the best choice for those whose goal is to preserve motion.
Both disk replacement and spinal fusion procedures work well and help the patient have a better quality of life. Sometimes either surgery would work well to correct the injury giving the patient options, although in specific cases one surgery may work better over the other. It is important for the patient to confer with qualified doctors and surgeons to decide which surgery would be the best choice.
What is the difference between the two surgeries and how does one go about deciding which surgery would work best for them? Beginning with spinal fusion, this works well for those who deal with painful joints including degenerative scoliosis, advanced disc disease, other unstable spinal problems, or those with numerous ranges of disease. With spinal fusion surgery these painful and disabling ailments can be treated by fusing together two or more vertebrae.
Disk replacement surgery has only been regularly practiced since the mid to late 80s. Compared to spinal fusion, this is a more recent procedure, which gets rid of the diseased disc and replaces it with an artificial disc. These metal and plastic discs create a similar motion of the original disc.
Deciding on which type of surgery, if needed, the patient should consider all the options, pros, cons, and risks of back surgery. For those living in southern Texas, the South Texas Spinal Clinic has qualified doctors and surgeons along with excellent staff to aid one in this decision. They offer consultations, physical therapy, surgery options along with everything in between. Surgery is not something a patient wants to jump into so research and careful consideration of all the options is critical. Disk replacement surgery and spinal fusion are two surgical options for one with back pain and discomfort. In some cases either surgery would work well, on the other hand only one may be the better choice depending on the injury and patient.
