CLEVELAND, Ohio. (Ivanhoe Newswire) — According to the National Center for Health Statistics, more than 1.2 million spinal surgeries are performed nationally each year. But sometimes the pain doesn’t go away. Now a new spine surgery is changing the norm, but who exactly should be getting this type of surgery?
Low back pain is one of the most common health conditions. It affects at least 619 million people worldwide.
“That pain is not necessarily improved with low back surgery,” said Alison Stout, DO, physician at Cleveland Clinic
Failed back surgery syndrome or FBSS refers to recurring pain even after back surgery.
“The pain that’s in the spine itself,” Dr. Stout explained.
And it affects 10-40% of patients. Now a new procedure has emerged: basivertebral nerve ablation. To qualify for this, the patient must have a pain called vertebrogenic pain.
“That is pain from the bone itself,” said Dr. Stout.
It involves deactivating the nerve with a radiofrequency probe.
“Treating the nerves inside the bones of the spine that relay pain from each side of the disc,” Dr. Stout told Ivanhoe.
This nerve will not grow back for at least five years, so patients may get permanent relief from their pain.
About 30 million Americans have chronic back pain, and only one in six might have vertebrogenic pain. What about the other five out of six?
“We don’t want to do this type of an invasive procedure for something that’s gonna go away on its own,” said Dr. Stout.
But for those eligible, age is not a factor.
Dr. Stout says there’s no set physical therapy regimen, and the recovery process is straightforward with not many restrictions. But they do try and limit the amount of lifting to protect the bones of the patient for up to 12 weeks.
Contributors to this news report include: Cliff Tumetel, Producer; Chuck Bennethum, Editor.
Sources:
https://www.who.int/news-room/fact-sheets/detail/low-back-pain
https://doi.org/10.1016/j.jocn.2022.06.027
https://news.bostonscientific.com/vertebrogenic-low-back-pain
* For More Information, Contact: Beth Hertz
Senior Manager of Corporate Communications at Cleveland Clinic
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