When you have spinal surgery, the aim is to reduce or relieve pain. But sometimes things go wrong. If you suffer from failed back surgery, visit board-certified pain specialist Asher C. Goldstein, MD, and his team at Zephyr Medical in the Brooklyn Heights neighborhood of Brooklyn, New York. They perform a complete evaluation and offer many effective treatments, including spinal cord stimulation for the most severe pain. Call Zephyr Medical today or book an appointment online to benefit from superior care for failed back surgery syndrome.

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What is failed back surgery?

Failed back surgery, also called failed back surgery syndrome, sometimes affects patients after spinal operations.

These surgeries include discectomy (removing a damaged disc), spinal fusion (joining the vertebrae [bones] on either side of a removed disc), and laminectomy, where your surgeon removes some of the spinal bone to widen the spinal canal.

Modern surgical techniques offer many patients relief from severe, treatment-resistant back pain. Some continue to experience pain after their surgical wounds heal, while others develop worse pain after surgery.

What causes failed back surgery?

Failed back surgery has many causes. The fusion process might be unsuccessful, so the bones don’t join together like they should. Or there might be excessive bone growth and stiffness in the spine.

You might find your back surgery fails to deal with the pain above or below the surgical site. Or the original problem, like spinal stenosis (spinal canal narrowing), might come back.

It’s also possible for the nerves and structures in your spine to suffer damage during surgery. Operating on the spine requires exceptional precision to avoid the spinal cord and the nerves coming off it through the spinal canal. A damaged nerve can cause severe pain after surgery.

What happens during a failed back surgery consultation?

The Zephyr Medical team has extensive experience helping patients struggling with failed back surgery.

Your doctor takes a thorough history and completes a physical exam. They also order new diagnostic images, like a CT scan or MRI, that provide highly detailed pictures of the spine.

After reviewing all the information, your doctor discusses the available treatments.

How is failed back surgery treated?

The Zephyr Medical team designs an individual treatment plan for you to address the results of your failed back surgery. The treatment program they create takes account of your unique situation, including the cause of your condition and how severe it is. Your doctor also considers anything that can affect your treatment, like age and other health problems.

Possible treatments for failed back surgery include:

  • Physical therapy
  • Medication
  • Epidural steroid injections
  • Nerve block injections
  • Transcutaneous electrical nerve stimulation (TENS)
  • Pain management counseling
  • Medical marijuana

If these treatments don’t reduce your failed back surgery pain, the Zephyr Medical team offers several nonsurgical procedures that could help. These include radiofrequency ablation and spinal cord stimulation, procedures that disrupt pain signals, stopping them from reaching your brain.

Call Zephyr Medical today or book an appointment online if you’ve had back surgery and are still in pain.