Back Surgery Alternatives
Back surgery alternatives are treatments designed to control the symptoms of back pain, or even correct the underlying source, without the need for surgical intervention. Alternatives to
back surgery
can be good, since they eliminate all the
risks
of an operation. Alternative treatments can also be bad, since most of them require ongoing care in order for the treatment to remain effective. This is the unfortunate compromise of symptomatic care of any variety.The main thing to consider when learning about alternatives to spinal surgery is that you can always go through with an operation at anytime in the future. With all the unknown variables of any type of surgery, isn’t it best to try everything else first? Certainly. This is why good doctors will always recommend saving operative interventions as a final option and taking the risk only once more conservative measures have proven fruitless.
Common Back Surgery Alternatives
Chiropractic
Acupuncture
Physical Therapy
Massage Therapy
Electrotherapy
Pain Managment Drugs
Epidural Injections
Spinal Decompression
Decompression therapy offers the most hope for providing a lasting cure without ongoing treatments. This modality is highly recommended for patients with some forms of verified structural pain conditions and is especially suitable for a variety of disc pathologies.
For more information on the full range of therapy options, see my section titled,
BACK PAIN TREATMENTS.
Symptomatic Treatment
Most back surgery alternatives offer
symptomatic treatment.
This means that the pain and other symptoms associated with a condition are reduced or eliminated. However, these treatments do not do anything to cure the actual problem causing the symptoms. For a condition that only requires time to heal, symptomatic treatment is fine. For a
chronic back pain
problem, symptomatic treatment might involve a lifetime of continuing care. No one wants to be a slave to a pain treatment. No one wants to incur the cost of a lifetime of care. There is no doubt that the multi-billion dollar
back pain industry
has driven the development of many long term care strategies. Too bad, (and non-coincidently) that there have been almost no major developments towards a medical
back pain cure.
Remember, although surgery aims to cure, not treat, it rarely succeeds. Surgery offers the hope of resolving pain when everything goes perfectly and the diagnosis is accurate. Never take these 2 variables for granted, as things have a tendency of going wrong with back operations and diagnoses are often invalid... Factually, the statistics showing complete and lasting cures derived via surgical intervention are few and far between.
The Alternative to Back Surgery Alternatives
Huh? Yes, there is an alternative to the alternative.
Knowledge therapy
works on correcting certain types of pain conditions through education alone. The patient will learn exactly why they have pain and how it is connected to their psychological and emotional health. By understanding and eliminating the psychoemotional reasons for the pain to exist, the physical symptoms can be cured without surgery. This is good medicine and good science and has been proven to work in tens of thousands of
chronic pain
patients. However, ti is absolutely vital to know that this path towards a cure will never work for verified structural pain, but may work wonders for idiopathic pain and conclusive forms of mindbody suffering.
Back Surgery Alternatives to Back Pain
6/13/06 Revised 11/3/11
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