Things to Know Before Undergoing Scoliosis Surgery

Posted by abby smiths on January 2nd, 2018

A medical condition where your spinal cord is bent horizontally in either a C-shaped or an S-shaped position is called Scoliosis. Although the life of a person having mild scoliosis won’t get affected to a great extent, there are certain cases where it may lead to other conditions like difficulty in breathing, cerebral palsy and muscle spasms. Doctors suggest their patients go under the knife to treat this kind of medical condition but truth be told, there are some scoliosis surgery side effects that one has to face after they have undergone scoliosis surgery.
On the other hand, living with scoliosis can become a hindrance to your daily life activities. You may experience neck pain, back pain, hip and knee pain, digestion and breathing problems. There are other non-surgical alternative treatments for scoliosis available, but if you and your doctor are determined to get the surgery done then here are a few things you need to be aware of.

From using rods, hooks, and screws to keep the spine in the correct posture to spinal discs replacement with bone chips that are harvested from the hip, there are many types of scoliosis surgeries that can be done. Various studies and real-life cases have proven the fact that the risks may outweigh the benefits of any scoliosis surgery. The surgery doesn’t cure scoliosis entirely, and there are some scoliosis surgery side effects that you should be aware of before going under the knife.

 Your back pain will not be eradicated. Yes, it is true that the excruciating pain will get lessened a bit, but then the frequency of maximum pain after the surgery will remain unchanged.
 Since in scoliosis, there is a poor correlation between the change of the thoracic volume and the Cobb angle, the breathing problem persists even after the surgery is done.
 There is a possibility that your posture post-surgery may look straight and upright, but then you should be aware that the scoliosis surgery is a cosmetic procedure. Therefore, there is a very high possibility of major nerve damage which can even lead to paralysis in the long run.
 People who have undergone this procedure commonly complain about pain at the graft site. To lessen this pain; doctors prescribe pain-killers which have detrimental side effects in the long run.

Keeping all the above points in mind, it is advisable that one who is suffering from scoliosis should opt for alternative treatments for scoliosis to avoid these highly probable scoliosis surgery side effects.

Author’s bio: The author is an avid blogger. This article makes the patients aware of the different side effects of scoliosis surgery.