Back pain does not have to be a fact of life

Back surgery has progressed, with minimally invasive techniques allowing patients to stand and walk the next day.

It’s a common complaint shared by countless people — an achy back.

It could start simple enough — a stiff back in the morning when getting out of bed, then during activities, lifting something heavy or just when the day becomes long.

But for so many, the ache becomes increasingly worse, reaching the point when it has a negative impact on what were once everyday activities.

“When people hear ‘back surgery,’ most still think back to the stigma of weeks laid up in bed and a long, slow recovery,” said Dr. Brett Walker, an orthopedic spine surgeon at McLaren Macomb. “With advanced equipment and modern techniques, the recovery and expectations after surgery are not what they once were. Living with back pain does not have to be an inescapable fact of life.”

The thought of walking a day after spine surgery was once unimaginable.

Dr. Walker, though, with his expertise and experience with minimally invasive techniques, sees his patients standing and walking the day after the procedure.

What was once the unimaginable is now the expectation.

Herniated discs and other degenerative disc diseases can lead to debilitating pain in the back and neck and send shooting pain down the arms and legs.

While it’s not the first option, ultimately surgery may become the only option to correct the underlying issue and return a patient to a fulfilling, pain-free life.

Through small incisions, Dr. Walker’s approach significantly decreases the soft tissue damage that was unavoidable in the traditional approaches. This results in less surgical time, less blood loss and a lower infection rate, leading to a quicker recovery and less of a need for post-op pain medications.