Risks associated with Spinal Decompression Surgery

Risks associated with Spinal Decompression Surgery

All surgical risks are mainly dependent on three factors – the medical condition of patient, the severity of the disease, and the procedure being performed. Each of these factors attribute to varying degrees of risks, which are unique to every patient.  

The risks of spinal decompression surgery can also be understood better if we look at them in three separate parts – the risk of anaesthesia, the risks associated with the procedure being performed and the risks associated with comorbidities.  

The anaesthetic risk is dependent on the patient profile and there are grades to quantify this risk. The presence of medical diseases like diabetes, heart diseases, obesity further increase this risk. 

There are certain risks which are universally applicable to every type of surgery like wound healing and surgical site infection. The spinal decompression surgery is usually planned to relieve the compression on the spinal nerves or the spinal cord. Hence, by design this procedure is not meant to address axial pain (like back/ neck pain) but a radiating pain like a sciatica. CSF (a fluid that encases brain and spinal cord) leakage is one of the less common issues associated with the procedures.  

One of the major concerns associated with spine surgery is injury to neural structures or paralysis. But thankfully, with advanced and specialised training, the development of the spine surgery sub-speciality, the advent of modern day techniques and safety devices like neuromonitoring and navigation; the major risk of injury to neural structures has become a rare occurrence.