Patient's Guide to Risks Involved in Spine Surgery

Complications are involved in any surgery. However, it can be major or minor depending on the type of surgery. If it is a spine surgery, then there could be some very complications. There may be risk of pain and impairment following the surgery which may require another surgery. These complications related to the surgery should be discussed with your surgeon before the procedure. Let us know what are the complications involved in spine surgery. 

General complications that can occur after spine surgery include anesthesia complications, blood clots, bleeding, lung problems, dural tear, persistent pain and infection.

Anesthesia complications

Only few patients report problems from anesthesia. These complications may occur due to reactions to the drugs used, problems with anesthesia or other medical conditions that patient may have. Anesthesia can interfere with the functioning of the lungs and create problems with lung infections. Patient may experience vomiting and nausea which can be treated with medicines. 

Bleeding

There could be unexpected bleeding following the spine surgery. Surgeon has to move the abdominal aorta and large vessels going to the legs out of there way while performing spine surgeries through the abdominal cavity.

Blood Clotting

Blood clotting or thrombophlebitis is the common problem occuring in many surgical procedures. Blood clots are formed in the large veins of the calf which may continue growing and reach upto the veins of the thigh and in few cases into the pelvis veins. It is very important to prevent blood clotting. Blood clots in the deep veins of the legs may hinder normal flow of blood from legs to the heart. This results in swelling and pain in the affected leg. The risk of developing blood clot should be prevented in any type of surgery. This could be done through mechanical and medical ways. Mechanical measure involves improving the blood flow and medical process involves use of drugs to slow down the clotting process.

Dural Tear

The spinal cord and spinal nerves are covered by a watertight sac of tissue called as dura mater. A tear can occur in this covering during spine surgery. If it noticed during the surgery, tear can be simply repaired. If unnoticed, tear will not heal and will continue to leak spinal fluid which can create problems like spinal headache, spinal meningitis, etc.  

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