Failed Back Surgery Syndrome Treatment Newport Beach

The term describes persistent pain after spinal surgery. It covers several different situations — surgery that addressed the wrong structure, a new problem at the level next to the fusion, scar tissue around a nerve, or pain that has become persistent in its own right.

What Failed Back Surgery Syndrome Treatment Newport Beach involves

Working out which of those you have, because they are not the same problem. Failed Back Surgery Syndrome Treatment Newport Beach patients here get a careful history of what was operated on, what changed and what did not, alongside a full examination.

How treatment is adapted

We do not adjust through a fusion or over instrumentation. Work is directed at the segments above and below, which take the extra load, and at the hips and mid-back. Techniques are gentler and instrument-assisted more often than manual.

What we need from you

The operation report if you have it, or at least what was done and at which levels. That changes what is safe and what is sensible, and guessing is not good enough with hardware in place.

Why the name is unhelpful

It implies the surgery failed, which is often unfair and unhelpful to the person carrying it. Frequently the surgery did what it was meant to and a different problem is now producing the pain — most commonly the level adjacent to a fusion, which takes on movement the fused segment no longer contributes.

Being realistic

Expectations here should be modest. Conservative care can often improve movement, reduce load on the adjacent levels and make daily life easier. It is unlikely to resolve everything, and we will be clear about that at the first visit rather than after ten.

Coordinating with your surgeon

We would rather work alongside the surgical team than around them, particularly in the first year after an operation. If you are still under review, tell us, and tell them you are being seen here. Where something we find suggests a surgical question rather than a mechanical one, that goes straight back to them rather than being managed here.