Any surgery has risks. Most of the spinal surgery we do does not have the ability to replace the parts in the spine. I frequently tell my patients that we are doing patch-up work. The chance of making patients worse after most spinal surgeries is very small¾usually less than 1-2%. As in any surgery, there are many risks, but the chance of truly devastating complications, such as paralysis or permanent loss of bowel and bladder control is very small in the vast majority of spinal surgeries. More common complications include the formation of scar tissue as well as the failure of our current techniques to completely relieve a patient's pain 100% of the time.
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Anesthesia, blood loss, infection, nerve injury, persistent pain, medical compilations, pneumonia, urinary tract infection, and stroke.
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The biggest risk is that the pain will not resolve. Surgery lessens the pain for most people, but does not eradicate it completely. And there are some patients who get no improvement. But most people do well. Other risks include risks of anesthesia, infection, nerve damage, CSF leak, fracture, failure of the fusion to heal, blood loss, and need to reoperate.
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Surgical risks fall under several categories. There are risks of the surgery itself such as neurovascular damage, hemorrhage, implant insertion error, or anesthetic complications. If an anterior approach is used, there are additional risks to the abdominal structures. After surgery, complications may occur in the early or late postoperative period. Early problems include hematoma, infection, poor wound healing, and pulmonary impairment from the anesthesia. Late problems may occur months later. Recurrent disc herniations and fusion non-unions are examples of late complications.
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Any complication that can happen with any surgery can also happen with spine surgery, but thankfully they are all quite rare. These should be discussed thoroughly with your surgeon prior to surgery. The most common risks are infection (1-3%), failure of fusion (2-5% per level), and failure of the pain to improve.
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In general, the risks are similar to those associated with other major operations — infection, bleeding, blood clots, and anesthesia. Patients who are obese, smoke, or have other medical illnesses are at greater risk. The specific risks associated with spinal surgery include dural tear, nerve injury, pseudoarthrosis, and revision surgery. More complex surgeries involving severe deformities or revision surgery carry greater risks than less involved cases. It is important to review the risks and benefits of the procedure with your surgeon.
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Spinal surgery carries with it many various risks, as does any surgical procedure. Risks include problems such as infection, bleeding, nerve damage, failure of the fusion, failure of the hardware, persistent pain and need for other surgeries. These risks are relatively low in their likelihood and should be further discussed with your surgeon in detail.
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The risks of spinal surgery are the same for all surgical procedures-infection and anesthesia problems. Depending upon where the surgery is done-cord or nerve root level, neural risks are possible. Depending upon what the surgery is-specific risks from instrumentation or the approach are possible.
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There are many risks associated with spinal surgery. However, in the hands of a well-trained, dedicated spine surgeon, these risks should be quite low. The risks include paralysis, weakness, numbness, bleeding, spinal fluid leakage, wound healing problems, infection, spinal hardware breakage, and failure to fuse. There is also a risk that the pain may not be fully relieved. All of these risks should be discussed with your surgeon prior to surgery.
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Like any other surgery, spinal surgery carries the risk of infection, bleeding, need for transfusions, nerve damage, bowel, bladder, and sexual dysfunction as well as medical complications, such as heart attack, stroke, blood clots, or death. There is always the possibility of worsening the pain and requiring additional surgeries. In the hands of a properly trained spinal surgeon, however, these risks can be minimized.
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Many of the risk are not specific to spinal surgery but to surgery itself. These would include the unlikely events of death, infection, bleeding , and need for future surgery. Specific spinal risks include paralysis, numbness, pain, bowel or bladder problems, instability, fusion failure, and need for future surgery.
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There are risks associated with any surgical procedure. The risks for spine surgery include but are not limited to: inter-operative complications, infection, bleeding and hardware failure.
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Infection, pneumonia, dural leak, bleeding.
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If these procedures are done by a certified spinal surgeon, then the risks are much less likely to occur. As with any surgical procedure risks include but are not limited to: infection, bleeding, psuedoarthrosis, plate failure, dural tears, nerve injuries, chronic pain, swallowing difficulties, hoarseness, paralysis and death. The aforementioned risks are extremely rare and uncommon in patients when the surgeries are performed by certified specialists.
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The biggest risk is a lack of pain relief. A recently published extensive review of the literate indicates spinal fusion has an associated satisfactory relief of pain in the 70% range - meaning 30% of patients who undergo a spinal fusion do not receive adequate pain relief. This would be by far the biggest risk. A disc herniation operation performed on the appropriate patient has more than 95% chance of success in terms of alleviating severe buttock and leg pain. The other risks of surgery are extremely rare, including infection and nerve injury.
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Obviously, there are many different forms of lumbar spinal surgery. Therefore, the specific nature of the risks and the frequency of each would depend upon the type of lumbar spinal surgery planned. The categories of risk often discussed include, but are not limited to: neurological injury (loss of function of strength, sensation, bowel/bladder, walking, loss of sexual function), infection, bleeding, lack of relief of pain or increase of pain, spinal fluid leakage, need for further surgery at this or other areas of the spine, failure of fusion, failure of instrumentation (pullout or breakage), risks related to positioning during surgery, risks related to anesthesia, risks of non-spinal medical complications, risks of transfusion, risks related to injuries associated with the approach to the spine (such as when the spine is approached through the abdomen) or death.
Remember that the frequency of each risk must be taken in to consideration. Ultimately, the decision to recommend surgery means that the surgeon feels that the potential benefits outweigh the potential risks.
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The risks associated with spinal surgery depend on what needs to be done and what the approach is for that spinal surgery. So there are different risks if you approach from the front and different risks if you approach from the back. There are different risks if you have had spinal surgery before and different risks depending on what part of the spine you are operating on. Overall there is risk of bleeding, infection; there is a risk that there will be damage to the nerves. There is a risk you can get a spinal fluid leak during spine surgery and there is always a risk that the surgery will fail and that the patient won't get better. Those risks have to be individualized for each patient.
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These are very much dependent on the type of surgery performed, however, the majority of complications include nerve root injury, bleeding issues, failure of fusion, failure of instrumentation, and infection.
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We inform our patients that general risks during spine surgery include infection, bleeding, nerve damage, and failure to resolve the pain. There are many other risks associated with these highly complex surgeries and should be discussed extensively with your surgeon before agreeing to proceed.
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There are numerous risks ranging from nerve damage which is generally a very low risk when done by surgeons who have experience in doing spine surgery to the possibility of death in patients who have significant medical illnesses such as severe heart or lung disease. There is always a risk from anesthesia with any surgery but this is a low risk and the risk of heart attack, stroke, or other major complications is less than 1 in 100,000. There is also the possibility of blood loss that may require a transfusion. However, fortunately more than 90% of patients will not experience any long term ill effects from the surgery.
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Prior to undergoing spinal surgery, you and your surgeon should discuss: the potential benefits of the surgery; alternatives to the surgery, including the option of doing nothing; and the potential complications of the surgical procedure that you have elected to undergo. In general, the potential complications associated with spinal surgery include the following: infection; excessive bleeding or blood clots; nerve injury; implant failure; failed fusion (pseudoarthrosis); dural leaks from tears to the membrane that contains the cerebrospinal fluid; adverse reaction to the materials used to perform the surgical procedure; and aggravation of a pre-existing injury. As with any surgery, there is also the general medical risks associated with the stress of undergoing a surgical procedure and undergoing anesthesia.
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The risks associated with spine surgery depend on the area of the spine to be treated. In the lower lumbar spine, for surgery performed posteriorly, there is a risk of infection, dural tear, and nerve-root damage. The most common complication is failure to relieve your pain. When surgery is performed from a posterior approach in the upper lumbar spine, there may be addition risks, such as problems associated with the spinal cord (e.g., bowel and bladder dysfunction). For surgery performed from an anterior approach to the lumbar spine, there is a risk of hernia, vascular injuries, sexual dysfunction, and chronic pain.
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Complications that can occur with spinal procedures include infection, spinal fluid leak, nerve injury, bleeding, failure to fuse, implant failure or the need to re-operate. The risks involved with spine surgery depend upon the specific surgery being performed, the health of the patient involved, and the training and experience of the spine specialist performing the surgery. You can minimize the risks by seeking out surgeons with advanced training and who dedicate their practice to spinal surgery.
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Many of the risks associated with spine surgery are the same as with any type of surgery. There is the risk of bleeding, infection, damage to nerves or vessels, scarring, pain, and the risk of the anesthesia itself; however, these are all extremely low and uncommon. However, any type of surgery, including spine surgery, should be approached with caution. It is important to educate patients regarding all aspects of the surgery they are about to have.
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Infection, bleeding, nerve damage, and lack of bone fusion are the main risks associated with spinal surgery.
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Many of the risk are not specific to spinal surgery but to surgery itself. These would include the unlikely event of death, infection, and bleeding. Specific spinal risks include paralysis, numbness, bowel or bladder problems, instability, fusion failure, continued and/or new pain or weakness, and need for future surgery.
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Truthfully, the risks of spinal surgery are too numerous to record here. However, in general, the risk of catastrophic event such as death, paralysis, loss of bowel or bladder or sexual function, and loss of limb are <5%. The risk of permanent morbidity such as weakness or impaired nerve function is <10%. The risk of transient morbidity such as weakness or impaired nerve function is as high as 20% pending the surgical procedure. Probably the greatest "risk" of spinal surgery is failure to accomplish the "wishful" long-term goals, especially from pain.
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