Is Spine Surgery Dangerous? Here are the common risks and complications.

Is spine surgery dangerous? My name is Dr. Jeff Langmaid and over the next few minutes I want to break down some of the common stats around spine surgery, some of the common types of spine surgery, as well as some of the risks and complications that routinely happen. So by trade, I am a chiropractor, but for years I practiced within orthopedic clinics with neurosurgeons and orthopedic surgeons day in and day out. So I was able to see exactly what was going on in the OR and under the knife and the challenges that people dealt with and the successes that they had and after undergoing spine surgery. So is it dangerous? The answer is yes. There's up to a estimated 20% complication rate anytime the spine is worked on. What do those complications include? Well, simple things like infections that most of the time don't end up being too big of a deal, all the way to dural clots and lung issues and blood clots can all be challenges. So what exactly are those things? Well, anytime you make an incision in the skin, there is an infection risk. The longer your surgery is and the more of an open procedure as opposed to minimally invasive, your risk of infection continues to climb. Additionally, there are comorbidities, as we say, or challenges that you might go into the operating room with that can increase your risk of infection. If you have been prone to have infections in the past, if you have any immunocompromising challenges, diseases, conditions going on right now, you, things like weight, all of these things play a role in your infection risk beyond what is traditionally associated with the operation itself. Now, the next things that we look towards are blood clots when you are down, when you are sedated, and then when it's going to be a long recovery period, there's always that chance and risk of blood clots. These can be exceptionally dangerous when they happen. But thankfully, much of the time, and for many people, this is a non issue. But one of the biggest challenges that we see time and time again intraoperatively, or things that happen during the operation itself, is what we call a dural leak. So if we take a look right here, these are the vertebra or bones of your spine. Right here in between your bones are the discs and your central nervous cord travels down the backside, out the sides are the spinal nerves. So your nervous cord, your spinal nerve and your spinal nerves are all encased, they're encased in dura, so they have fluid around them. All the nerves travel down as a bundle and then there's A case with fluid to protect them. That's called the dura. If a surgeon, during the procedure happens to nick or trim or hit that sac, it can cause a tear. That tear is called the dural leak, because quite often cerebrospinal fluid, csf, which resides, that's the fluid in there, starts to leak out. So dural leaks can cause anything from extreme headaches to having to go in and do another operation to throw a few stitches on it and seal it up. So all of these things are potential complications. When you think about having a spine surgery, the list is much more comprehensive than what I described today. But the most important thing is if you've been recommended a spine surgery, be sure to sit down with your surgeon, ask them about the risks, ask them about the benefits, get a great understanding as much as you can of exactly what their plan is. And before you even do that, make sure you're following the current clinical guidelines and exhaust all conservative care options before undergoing any elective spine surgery. Spine surgery is always the last option. It is never the first choice in spine care because of the risks and dangers associated with it. As a matter of fact, recent clinical guidelines recommend before even medication, never mind spine surgery, that you exhaust movement based therapy such as chiropractic exercise and anything to do with moving your body. Movement is much better than medicine quite often. But you gotta get out there, find a great provider in your community, get a plan of action and then execute on it day in and day out. Surgery is not a permanent fix for many people with re herniation risks of 20 to 40%. That means that if you have an area worked on of your spine, there's about a 20 to 40% likelihood of that that area will have a re herniation or a problem with its disc again in the future. All of these things are what you want to consider before going under the knife and having a spinal surgery. If you have any questions about this whatsoever, feel free to drop them down below. My name is Dr. Jeff Langmaid and I'll see you in the next video. Hey, what's going on? 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