About This Blog:
- When patients are diagnosed with lumbar spinal stenosis, they often ask what treatment options are available that don’t require some kind of surgery.
- While patients can seek conservative, alternative, and interventional treatment options for their condition, minimally invasive spine surgery is generally the most lucrative and long-lasting for complete pain relief.
- In this blog, Dr. Mark Giovanini of NeuroMicroSpine explains which treatment options are better for lumbar spinal stenosis: MIS surgery or nonsurgical therapies.
Dr. Mark Giovanini of NeuroMicroSpine has witnessed great success with minimally invasive spine surgery for patients affected by various spinal conditions. It’s one of the many reasons he began a career in this industry.
Still, he acknowledges most patients do not want to pursue surgery if they don’t have to for their condition. While surgery may seem like the less desirable option for a spinal condition like lumbar spinal stenosis, it can relieve pain better than most nonsurgical treatment options.
The problem with interventional pain care is that patients are not correcting or treating the underlying problem – they’re masking their symptoms and hoping they won’t return. Unfortunately, these symptoms are likely to return, especially if the patient suffers from a degenerative disease that will progress and worsen over time.
Now, we’re not discounting the many benefits of pain management. It can help patients with mild and moderate injuries or patients with chronic conditions that cannot be cured. Regardless, if there were a better way to fix a problem, wouldn’t you take it?
That’s what the medical journal Spine (http://journals.lww.com/spinejournal/Abstract/2016/07150/Surgical_Versus_Nonsurgical_Treatment_for_Lumbar.8.aspx) revealed from a study that analyzed whether or not patients experience enhanced outcomes from surgical or nonsurgical treatment. In the study, various treatment options were taken into consideration for lumbar spinal stenosis. The result can be seen below:
- When studying spine surgery versus bracing and exercise for treatment, the researchers found there were no pain discrepancies between the two treatments.
- When comparing spine surgery with spinal injections, the research team discovered spinal injections enhanced physical function but spine surgery produced better pain relief six weeks post-op.
- For patients who received an implanted device over nonsurgical treatment, the researchers found surgery resulted in better outcomes for symptoms and physical function.
Every patient case is different, but generally speaking, minimally invasive spine surgery produces better outcomes in the long-term. This isn’t surprising considering most conservative, alternative, and interventional therapies are only meant to last a few days, weeks, or months, not a lifetime.
For more information on minimally invasive spine surgery or to make an appointment with Dr. Giovanini, please call (850) 934-7545 or visit https://www.neuromicrospine.com/request-appointment.
We hope to see you soon!
The advice and information contained in this article is for educational purposes only and is not intended to replace or counter a physician’s advice or judgment. Please always consult your physician before taking any advice learned here or in any other educational medical material.