Low Back Pain After Surgery Specialist

Why would I have low back pain after surgery?

Pain is normal after surgery, and doctors do everything they can to keep it under control using medications until the damaged tissues heal. The pain gradually reduces until healing is complete, when it should disappear completely. But for some patients, pain after surgery continues beyond the usual healing period.

You might have low back pain following surgery to correct a spinal disorder if the procedure fails. In this case, your pain is likely to feel the same as before your surgery, or it might be reduced but still there, or it could be worse.

Alternatively, you might find the original back pain is gone, but you now have a new kind of pain. It could be caused by nerve damage that happened during the surgery. Surgeons take great care to avoid nerve damage, but it’s not always possible.

Internal scar tissue can also cause low back pain after surgery — epidural adhesions are a common problem. The epidural space surrounds your spinal cord. After surgery, scar formation in this area can stick the tissues together, including nerves. These adhesions can also cause ongoing leg pain.

Some patients have new low back pain after surgery and their original pain. In other cases, people whose surgery wasn’t related to a back problem develop low back pain after surgery.

How is low back pain after surgery assessed?

If you have low back pain after surgery, your surgical team will investigate its cause. They might recommend further surgery to correct the problem. This works for some patients, while others continue to experience pain.

If your surgeon can’t find a cause for your low back pain after surgery and further surgery is too risky, or you don’t want more surgery, the focus turns to managing your pain.

How is low back pain after surgery treated?

Every patient’s experience of low back pain after surgery is different. That’s why the Cleaver Medical Group Interventional Pain team creates a customized treatment plan for each person.

Physical therapy can help many people with low back pain after surgery. Medications like anti-inflammatories, low-dose antidepressants, and antiseizure medicines can also reduce pain.

Cleaver Medical Group Interventional Pain offers cutting-edge treatments to patients who aren’t finding physical therapy and medication effective. These treatments include:

• Epidural steroid injections
• Medial branch blocks (anesthetic injections)
• Lysis of epidural adhesions (scar tissue removal)
• Radiofrequency ablation
• Peripheral nerve stimulation
• Spinal cord stimulation

Ablation and stimulation treatments work by blocking or changing the pain messages from your nerves to your brain.

Call Cleaver Medical Group Interventional Pain today or book an appointment online to see how these advanced treatments could resolve your low back pain after surgery.