Researchers reviewed records from 1,450 Low Back Pain patients. Half of the patients had surgery. The other half had no surgery.
After two years only 26 percent of those who had surgery had returned to work.
That’s compared to 67 percent of patients who didn’t have surgery and did return to work.
Even more shocking: there was a 41 percent increase in the use of narcotic painkillers in those who had surgery.
Surgery leads to heavy drug use.
“The study provides clear evidence that fusion surgeries don’t work”, says the study’s lead author Dr. Trang Nguyen, a researcher at the University of Cincinnati College of Medicine.
Just a month after back surgery, Nancy Scatena was once again in excruciating pain. The medications her doctor prescribed barely took the edge off the unrelenting back aches and searing jolts down her left leg. “The pain just kept intensifying,” says the 52-year-old Scottsdale, Ariz., woman who suffers from spinal stenosis, a narrowing of the channel through which spinal nerves pass.
“I was suicidal.”
Finally, Scatena made an appointment with another surgeon, one whom friends had called a “miracle worker.” The new doctor promised her that this second operation would fix everything, and in the pain-free weeks following an operation to fuse two of her vertebrae it seemed that he was right. But then the pain came roaring back.
Surgery failed AGAIN!
Experts estimate that nearly 600,000 Americans opt for back operations each year. But for many like Scatena, surgery is just an empty promise, say pain management experts and some surgeons.
This new study in the journal Spine shows that in many cases surgery can even backfire, leaving patients in more pain.
The study provides clear evidence that for many patients, fusion surgeries designed to alleviate pain from degenerating discs don’t work, says the study’s lead author Dr. Trang Nguyen, a researcher at the University of Cincinnati College of Medicine.
27 Million Adults With Back Problems
A recent report by the Agency for Healthcare Research and Quality, a federal organization, found that in 2007, twenty-seven million adults reported back problems, with $30.3 billion spent on treatments to ease the pain.
A big chunk pays for spine surgeries.
Complicated spine surgeries that involve fusing two or more vertebrae are on the rise. In just 15 years, there was an 800% jump in this type of failed operation, according to a study published in Spine in July. That has some surgeons and public health experts concerned.
European Guidelines specifically states:
"Surgery for non-specific Low Back Pain cannot be recommended unless 2 years of all other recommended conservative treatments have failed".
This study also re-confirms the findings of the UK BEAM Trial, published in the British Medical Journal in 2004. Those authors stated:
"Manipulation, with or without exercise, improved symptoms more than best care (medical care) alone after three and 12 months. However, analysis of the cost utility of different strategies shows that manipulation alone probably gives better value for money than manipulation followed by exercise" (page 1381).
Dr. Gary says: "This is what I've seen over and over again but surgeons recommend surgery every chance they get. They are happy to take the money and leave the patient in pain and will charge again for another surgery and another. Chiropractic is the best treatment for low back pain and this proves it."
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