Don’t Live with Chronic Back Pain T
ODAY WE are here with Drs. A.J. and Monica Sarrat of West Knox Acupuncture and Integrative Medicine to learn about Failed Back Surgery Syndrome, which is one of their specialties in the clinic. What is Failed Back Surgery Syndrome? Failed Back Surgery Syndrome is a term that describes the set of symptoms someone has after a back surgery that was not successful. These patients continue to experience chronic back pain even after surgery, and the likelihood of getting this condition increases with multiple back surgeries. Other symptoms may include anxiety or depression, in addition to the continued back pain.
Over the years, I have had back injections that really haven’t helped, and physical therapy that didn’t do a lot either. This has been going on for more than 30 years. We sat down with Dr. A.J., he told us what to expect and what the procedures would be like. I am now able to do more things around the house, and even travel more. We made a trip recently and I spent 10 hours in the car with no pain - I could have never done that before!
Why do some people get this condition? Some common causes are choosing the wrong surgical procedure, an inappropriate surgical candidate, or not performing surgery at the correct level in the spine. Certain types of spinal procedures like fusions, especially if they are multilevel fusions, will likely cause pain or new disc herniations above or below the fused spinal segments due to the fact that the discs above and below the fusion are not
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EVERYTHING KNOXVILLE
August 2022
Successful treatments are available for chronic back pain able to withstand the pressure exerted on them and end up creating bulges, herniations, or extrusions. If the sacrum is fused to the last lumbar vertebrae, it can also cause another type of low back pain by putting excessive pressure on the joints lower down in the pelvis. Sometimes this is unavoidable because the surgery was necessary to keep the patient from losing the ability to stand or walk. What are common treatments for Failed Back Surgery Syndrome?
Most treatments are limited to pain medications, injections, or spinal cord stimulators. The days of multiple surgeries and revisions seems to have passed, as we are seeing fewer and fewer of those patients in recent years. What is your experience treating this condition? Dr. A.J. was hired by a hospital specifically to treat these patients and was there for almost 15 years. He had a greater than 85% success rate during that time and also
