Combined transforaminal lumbar interbody fusion with posterolateral instrumented fusion for degenerative disc disease can be a safe and effective treatment for lower back pain

What is it about?

Chronic back pain is common and usually life altering. Back pain is curable when treated correctly. Surgery is reserved for back pain that does not improve after therapy and injections. We performed lumbar spinal fusion on patients with degenerative disc disease With the goal of eliminating pain permanently. All fusions were performed by Dr. Deukmedjian MD at Deuk Spine Institute in Florida. After spinal fusion surgery, patients had 84% resolution of their prep prestige back pain and 90% resolution of leg pain or sciatica. Their pain level before surgery was an 9 out of 10 on average and after fusion their pain level dropped down to a 1 on average for all patients treated with spinal fusion. There were 205 consecutive patients in this prospective study, 50/50 male/female with age range 18 - 85 years old. All patients treated from 2008 - 2011 with spinal fusion were included in the results and no "bad" results were left out in an effort to be completely transparent. Forty percent of patients were Medicare age and they did just as well as the younger patients. Only 5% had complications and average follow up was 1.5 years.

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