Back Injuries and Surgical Options Following an Accident
Traffic accidents often lead to back injuries, which can be especially tedious since they impair the mobility of your entire body. Even the slightest back injury can have you down-and-out for days at a time. If you have injured your back, make sure you seek medical attention immediately. Because back injuries affect your entire body, you may want to seek a second opinion so you do not rush into unnecessary surgery or leave the issue untreated, thereby risking elongated consequences.
While minor back injuries can be cured with rest, medical attention is often needed to ensure full recovery. Physical therapy, chiropractic care and epidural injections are all beneficial treatments to consider after an accident. However, despite conservative treatment measures, sometimes back surgery is inevitable. Here is a list of different procedures that you may want to discuss with your doctor.
Discectomy – This surgery removes the central part of an intervertebral disk, which is causing pain by adding stress to the spinal cord and nerves. This can be a complicated open surgery which usually involves the surgeon removing parts of the back vertebra to access the ruptured disc.
Fusion – Advances in medicine and technology have dramatically improved spinal fusions, allowing for quicker recovery and shorter hospital stays. A spinal fusion permanently connects two or more bones of the spine, adding stability and reducing the overall pain of back fractures.
Lumbar Laminectomy – In this surgery, the doctor removes ligament that joins your vertebrae and lamina, the bony arches of your vertebrae. The doctor will then pull nerve roots to the center of the spinal column and remove part of the disk or the entire disk.
Vertebroplasty – In this surgery, the doctor uses a needle to inject bone cement into fractured vertebrae. This helps stabilize the injured vertebrae. This surgery is performed by a spine surgery and is minimally invasive. Patients are usually able to return home the same day.
Kyphoplasty – Similar to a vertebropasty, this procedure places a balloon into a collapsed vertebra. After the balloon is inserted, the doctor injects bone cement into the vertebra. This procedure usually takes a bit longer to recover from than a vertebroplasty since a larger needle is used.
Of course, there are many different procedures and surgeries for back injuries and is important to discuss these options with your doctor.
