What to Expect From Revision Spine Surgery

Surgery

Feb 23

Spine surgery can be one of the most rewarding experiences for people suffering from spinal issues. However, if your doctor is recommending revision spine surgery, it can often be difficult to decide if you are willing to undergo surgery again. If other treatments haven’t worked for you, and revision spine surgery is an option, it could be the best decision for you. Here we look at revision spine surgery, and what you can expect.

DEALING WITH SPINE SURGERY FAILURE

If you are dealing with spine surgery failure, your faith in the procedures available might now be wavering. While this is understandable, revision spine surgery can be the best answer to correct failed back surgery. While it can be hard to come to terms with a failed procedure, it is important to remember there is no such thing as a 100% success rate for any medical procedure. Remember, it is not just surgeon error that can lead to failure.

In fact, you might suffer from other medical conditions that contributed to the failure, such as obesity, diabetes, peripheral artery disease or an autoimmune disorder. If you smoke, the toxins in cigarette smoke can interfere with your ability to heal. Other causes of spine surgery failure include:

Scar tissue
Failure for fusion
Hardware or spinal implant failures
Adjacent segment disease
The disc becomes herniated again

There can also be issues with the surgery itself or even an incorrect diagnosis. Infection following surgery can also cause complications that lead to spine issues. Therefore, it is important to understand the cause of the spine surgery failure before deciding if you feel comfortable proceeding with revision spine surgery.

WHY REVISION SPINE SURGERY?

In some cases, you might find relief from conservative treatments and not require revision spine surgery. However, an experienced team should be looking at your back issues and come up with an accurate diagnosis that allows them to make the best recommendations for treatment options. This is because it can be difficult to diagnose spine conditions because they share common symptoms with so many other illnesses, conditions, and diseases. You want to first confirm your spine condition is a result of spine surgery failure because this is the only way to increase positive outcomes. Common signs you require revision spine surgery include:

New or worsening pain, numbness, or muscle weakness
Bladder or bowel issues
Cauda equina syndrome
Increased spinal instability
Pseudoarthrosis
Your implants have moved or are broken
Spinal infection

An experienced team will look at all the possible factors that can impact your surgery’s success. If they conduct a thorough examination and explore all of the factors, and recommend revision spine surgery, you can feel more confident in making your decision.

REVISION SPINE SURGERY EXPECTATIONS

Because you’ve been through spine surgery before, you might have expectations already. However, your revision spine surgery will vary and so could be quite different depending on your diagnosis and underlying medical conditions. Both of these factors must be considered when looking at expected outcomes. The most common procedures performed for revision spine surgery and expected outcomes include:

Correcting degenerative changes with an extension of your spinal fusion
Eliminating instability with additional surgical instrumentation
Removing instrumentation or hardware that is painful or causing infection
Removing infected/scar tissue
Restoring alignment or preventing deformity by creating intentional spinal fractures
Removing tissue or bone to relieve pinched nerves

It can be hard to pinpoint what you can expect because your surgery will vary based on how complicated or invasive it is. Minimally invasive revision spine therapy is less painful and offers quicker recovery times while more invasive procedures could increase the risk for pain or longer recovery times.