Discectomy is suggested to patients suffering from pain radiating down their arms or legs and their pain is not minimized by following non-surgical treatments.
A herniated disk in your spine can cause disturbance and pressure to the nerves nearby and removing it by securing your nerves can solve the pain in your arms and legs. The surgery performed can be either open or minimally invasive surgery.
The treatment is performed in patients who start showing signs of nerve weakness that makes their movement limited, or if the pain starts growing and unmanageable, and if your physical therapies do not give any positive results.
If you are suggested to go through a discectomy, the doctor will give you a list of instructions that you will need to follow before the surgery.
You will be required to fast before a few hours of the surgery.
You are advised to share your ongoing medications with your doctor as some changes can be made to the doses till the surgery is done and well-healed.
You can have a standard surgery or a minimally invasive surgery for your discectomy.
The standard surgery will involve making a longer incision that completely exposes the area to be operated on. Once the herniated disk is found, it is shaved off using special equipment relieving the pressure from the affected nerves.
In minimally invasive surgery, small incisions will be made through which a slender tube is inserted and the herniated disk is found. To eliminate the herniated disk, the doctors use many methods like laser, heat, or radio waves or injecting a chemical substance to dissolve the troubled part of the disk.
Depending on your condition, you will be asked to stay at the hospital. Some patients can be discharged on the same day of the surgery.
The total recovery time will range from around two to six weeks.
You will be asked to avoid lifting, bending, or prolonged sitting.
Your incision should be clean and dry at all times.
You should limit certain activities like lifting, twisting, and bending.
As discectomy is not a permanent cure, you can experience the situation again if the activity that initiated the pain will be performed again, hence limiting your lifting, twisting, and bending activities.
The doctor may also recommend weight loss to avoid a herniated disk in the future.
Initially, the doctor will warn you about the degree of infection and what can happen if you are infected, but if not, you may have- Fever Pain Swelling Redness A warm feeling around the area of surgery. If you experience any of the symptoms above, immediately contact your doctor.
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