Everything You Should Know About Facet Fusion Surgery
If you are suffering from chronic back pain, you may have noticed that it utterly disrupts the flow of life and hampers your daily routine. Back pain can cause you to feel restless and you may not be able to concentrate or focus on anything.
There are many health conditions such as spinal arthritis or facet joint syndrome that may lead you to developing chronic back pain. The facet fusion surgery is a surgical procedure in which the vertebrae in the area of pain are fused to curb the movement of the joint. The elimination of this joint movement helps to reduce the pain.
Guide to facet joints
- Facet joints are present in the spinal column. There are twenty four non fused vertebrae in two joints which form the spine. There is a disc between these joints with fibrous ligaments surrounding them.
- Facet joints contain synovial fluid in small amounts which lubricates for joint movement. These joints can develop pain due to ageing, injury, or damage.
- A lot of friction is caused when there is a loss of lubrication in the joints which also leads to pain and the need for facet fusion surgery arises.
Facet joint syndrome
- Facet joint syndrome is a health condition consisting of back pain. In this syndrome, the arthritic facet joint leads to pain and stiffness which lowers your flexibility levels. This can impact your quality of life by preventing you from performing your daily tasks.
- Ageing is one common reason that leads to the development of this syndrome. Too much consumption of alcohol and tobacco use or undiagnosed osteoarthritis can also lead to the development of the syndrome.
Finding out facet fusion
Going through facet fusion surgery may make you feel like you may be one who needs the surgery. However, it is critical to have an understanding of the factors that make one a candidate for this procedure.
- If you have been diagnosed with facet joint syndrome before, you can check with a professional and seek confirmation for the surgery.
- Conditions such as spondylitis thesis, degenerative disc disease, or osteoarthritis that have not been able to be cured by conservative back pain treatments may require the surgery.
- Medications such as muscle relaxants, anti inflammatory drugs, pain relieves, corticosteroid injections, and other such methods that have not proven to be effective in your back pain may indicate that you have to go through facet fusion surgery to relieve the pain.
Benefits of facet fusion surgery
- Surgery seems to be a dangerous word and the mere mention of it can send chills down a person’s spine. However, the facet fusion procedure is a minimal survival procedure that does not lead to complex consequences such as infection, bleeding, or nerve damage.
- It is a surgical procedure that involves the spine where the facet joints are fused to stop the mobility of the painful area. This fusion relieveds the pain in the area thereby allowing you to perform your regular functions without any discomfort.
- One of the best benefits of facet fusion surgery is that it does not consume a lot of time. It takes an estimate of 40-60 minutes to complete this surgery and the patients will only have to be in the hospital for one night to recover from the procedure. The recovery procedure is quick too since there is no intense muscle or tissue manipulation involved in the surgery.
If you’re still sceptical about the effeciency of this procedure, recent studies have shown that the facet fusion is an effective surgical procedure for relieving chronic back pain.
