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Any surgery has inherent risks whether it is a wisdom tooth extraction or major spine reconstruction. To put this into perspective, each one of us does a moderately dangerous thing every day. We get into a car and drive at moderate speeds. We are comfortable doing this because it is a familiar activity and we are not admonished regarding the risks of driving each time we do so and forced to sign a consent form agreeing to those risks. This is not to minimize spinal surgery risks, but it does help one to understand why they are sometimes frightening.
Spine surgery is performed under general anesthesia and with that come the complications of death, heart attack, stroke, seizure and blood loss requiring a transfusion.
More specific to spine surgery come the risks of paralysis, ventilator dependency, loss of bowel and bladder function, motor weakness, sensory deficit, blood loss requiring transfusion, blood clots, continued pain, implant failure, non union of the fusion, cerebrospinal fluid leak, and infection. These complications are generally very low but if they occur they can be devastating and potentially life threatening.
The complication rate generally increases with the complexity of the surgery as well the age and medical condition of the patient. Each patient is carefully screened preoperatively by a medical consultant to determine their general medical condition. This can be extensive requiring cardiac and pulmonary tests not routinely done in a standard yearly physical. Sometimes patients will fail to clear a preoperative medical evaluation to ascertain their fitness for surgery and may require considerable cardiac or pulmonary treatment prior to considering spine surgery. Others may fail to ever be candidates for surgery and would be treated medically. The goal of surgery is to minimize the risks of any surgical intervention.
SEE ALSO DEGENERATIVE DISC DISEASE
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