I ve exhausted all options for my back pain . The problem causing the most pain is spondylolisthesis . The surgeon says the surgery to repair this is very risky and he doesn t want to because I m only thirty one years old. He says we can do fusion surgery thats lower risk and more likely to alleviate my pain. I would like to know how often this surgery is succesful and what kind of life after surgery I should expect.
Spinal surgery which includes putting in screws, rods and fusing the aesthetic segment is a very common spinal procedure. It can give good relief to pain if done for the correct indication. It is likely to improve the shooting leg pain more than the low backache. All surgeries carry some risk and here the risks which are to be highlighted are of leak of spinal fluid, damage to the spinal nerve roots causing weakness/bladder or bowel or sexual dysfunction and failure of the operation apart from complications like infection, bleeding etc. In the long term, the risk is of failure of fusion and implant failure. That said, if the operation is performed when correctly indicated and in good hands can provide good pain relief for most patients.