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What Causes Persistent Leg Weakness After Surgery For Herniated Discs And Spinal Stenosis?
Question: After 'successful' bulging disk and spinal stenosis surgery--released for all activities, had sudden herniated disk.. Very painful with calf, foot numbness and leg weakness. Recovering inconsistently but leg weakness recovery very slow. No physical theraphy. Possible second surgery? Non surgical treatments for herniated disk?
Brief Answer:
Read below
Detailed Answer:
I read your question carefully and I understand your concern. It is very unfortunate to have had a recurring disk issue so soon after you had left the surgery behind you.
If improving, even slowly I wouldn't go for another surgery for the moment. First step is always physical therapy, it is vital to enable your muscles to better support the spine.
If pain is persistent then another thing to try would be local shots of steroid anti-inflammatories and analgesics which help the inflammation subside and alleviate the pain.
The above are the main non-surgical options for which some efficacy have been shown by studies. There are some other options such as spinal traction, chiropractics, acupuncture, TENS therapy etc. There are individual patients who report benefit with those, but there are no studies to prove their efficacy (may be also due to the fact that they belong to alternative medicine so no physicians conduct studies on those).
Another surgery may be considered if disabling pain continues for more than 4-6 weeks despite physical therapy and local shots, or it may be done even earlier when there are signs indicating a potential permanent disabling deficit such as severe leg weakness or bladder control issues.
I remain at your disposal for other questions.
Read below
Detailed Answer:
I read your question carefully and I understand your concern. It is very unfortunate to have had a recurring disk issue so soon after you had left the surgery behind you.
If improving, even slowly I wouldn't go for another surgery for the moment. First step is always physical therapy, it is vital to enable your muscles to better support the spine.
If pain is persistent then another thing to try would be local shots of steroid anti-inflammatories and analgesics which help the inflammation subside and alleviate the pain.
The above are the main non-surgical options for which some efficacy have been shown by studies. There are some other options such as spinal traction, chiropractics, acupuncture, TENS therapy etc. There are individual patients who report benefit with those, but there are no studies to prove their efficacy (may be also due to the fact that they belong to alternative medicine so no physicians conduct studies on those).
Another surgery may be considered if disabling pain continues for more than 4-6 weeks despite physical therapy and local shots, or it may be done even earlier when there are signs indicating a potential permanent disabling deficit such as severe leg weakness or bladder control issues.
I remain at your disposal for other questions.
Above answer was peer-reviewed by :
Dr. Chakravarthy Mazumdar
Answered by
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