Surgeons dramatically overestimate the effectiveness of surgery. Specifically, surgeons predict at least moderate improvement for almost all patients undergoing back surgery, yet nearly 40 percent of patients experience little or no improvement one year after their operation. These findings are from a just published study in the journal spine.
Are any of your friends, family members or co-workers considering back surgery? If so, Dr. Ekengren urges you to share this vital research with them.
A new study was conducted by a team of researchers at the University Hospital of Lausanne, Switzerland and was led by Dr. Bertrand Graz. The study’s subjects consisted of 197 patients with lower back pain, sciatica or both conditions that underwent lower back surgery.
The surgeons predicted a great deal of improvement for 79 percent of patients and moderate improvement for 20 percent. In total, the surgeons predicted at least moderate improvement for 99 percent of patients. However, 39 percent of the patients reported no clinically important difference in their quality of life, including level of disability and pain, one year following surgery.
And, of patients whose surgeon predicted a great deal of improvement, 56 percent reported no significant improvement.
Alarmingly, the researchers found a significant subset of the patients who were not even appropriate candidates for back surgery (based on strictly defined criteria). Not surprisingly, the surgeons had higher expectations for these patients, and these patients showed greater improvement on subjective measures of mental health and general health. Bottom line: Some of the surgeries deemed most successful may have been so because the patients didn’t really need the surgery in the first place. This factor indicates that not only are a significant number of back surgeries inappropriate, but that surgery, when deemed appropriate, may be even less effective than the study’s findings suggest.
If you are considering back surgery, it’s vital to get a second opinion from a doctor of chiropractic, even if you have already obtained second, third or fourth opinions from medical professionals.
Unfortunately, medical schools do not provide adequate education about the benefits of chiropractic care, so physicians remain unaware as to just what chiropractic is capable of and why.
Chiropractors like Dr. Ekengren help many patients return to full functioning after they have been told by medical practitioners that surgery is their only option.
For more information, contact Ekengren Chiropractic at 661-254-9400 or visit www.santaclaritachiropractic.com .