While most people get significant pain relief following back surgery, around 20-40% of back surgery patients will experience recurring pain or a new type of pain. At Pain Care Boise, board-certified pain management specialists Christopher Vaughan, MD, can discover the problem and end that persistent pain at last. Call the Downtown Boise, Idaho, office today or click the online provided scheduling link now.
Back pain after surgery, sometimes called “failed back surgery syndrome,” shows up in a small number of patients today. Highly trained neurosurgeons and orthopedic surgeons skillfully perform complex back surgeries every day. Up to 80% of those procedures are successful.
However, about 20-40% of patients experience poor results from back surgery. Their pain can start immediately after the procedure, or it could take a long time to appear. The pain is different in each case, but it’s not necessarily the same kind of pain that led you to have the surgery.
The most common causes of back pain after surgery include:
Recurrent disc herniation can cause radiating pain, which shoots down your leg. This usually happens after a discectomy or spinal fusion.
Scar tissue buildup around the nerve root can cause radiating pain, similar to that caused by a disc herniation. This sometimes happens after a discectomy or fusion.
Adjacent segment disease, which is often seen after spinal fusion, happens when the treated vertebral segment is fine, but the segment above or beneath it develops a problem. Usually, this means that the facet joints that join the vertebrae develop painful arthritis or some other kind of degeneration.
After a spinal fusion, your muscles can sometimes work too hard to adapt to the new hardware. This can trigger back pain.
Regardless of the cause of your back pain following surgery, Pain Care Boise offers treatments to address the original problem and get you out of pain for good.
Pain Care Boise offers a long list of treatments for pain after surgery, including:
Epidural steroid injections are usually the first pain management choice for back pain related to recurrent disc herniation, scar tissue buildup, and adjacent segment disease in the sacroiliac joint area.
Trigger point injections are the most common way to treat muscle pain after back surgery.
You might need spinal cord stimulation if, suffering from the radiating pain of recurrent disc herniation or scar tissue buildup, you don’t get relief from epidural steroid injections.
Radiofrequency ablation is a common treatment for painful facet joints in adjacent segment disease. Radiofrequency ablation of the lateral branch nerves can treat sacroiliac joint pain.
Regenerative treatments like platelet-rich plasma (PRP) and stem cell injections can be good choices for sacroiliac joint pain.
Peripheral nerve stimulation can be an alternative to spinal cord stimulation for muscle pain sufferers who develop complex regional pain syndrome.
In some cases, particularly where interventional procedures don’t offer relief, you might need to repeat your initial surgery. However, if scar tissue buildup causes your pain, repeating the surgery doesn’t make sense because the scar tissue will return.
The Pain Care Boise team offers the most advanced pain management procedures in the area, and they’re committed to helping you. Call the office today or schedule online now.
208-342-8200 (General Inquiries)
301 W Myrtle St, Boise, ID 83702
208-342-8200 
208-609-9164 
