People who suffer damage to the lumbar spine, which runs through the lower back, may need to undergo surgery if more conservative treatments such as pain medications and physical therapy don't do enough to relieve their pain and neurological problems. It's possible for lumbar spine surgery to help heal both the spine and the nerve roots along it.
Decompression
Damaged spinal discs can bulge out of their proper places in the lumbar spine, touching nerve roots nearby and triggering pain, numbness, tingling and weakness. Bone spurs can cause similar problems when they pinch nerve roots within the lumbar spine. Decompression lumbar spine surgery involves relieving nerve pressure by removing either bulging discs or bone spurs, according to Spine-Health.com. Decompression surgery also makes more room for nerves in the lumbar spine to heal, Spine-Health.com says.
Spinal Fusion
Spinal fusion involves fusing together two or more of the lumbar spine's vertebrae. Surgeons can use the surgery to stop the lumbar spine's motion at a painful area of vertebrae, and to stabilize the lumbar spine after damaged discs or bone spurs have been removed, says Spine-Health.com. Often doctors will use bone grafts to help promote the fusion they hope to achieve, the University of Maryland Spine Program says. They may also use metal instruments such as rods, plates and screws to hold bones together while they're healing after the surgery.
Bone Graft Options
Surgeons use bone grafts for spinal fusion surgeries to achieve two goals, according to the University of Maryland Spine Program: stimulating the vertebrae to heal so they fuse together properly, and filling in gaps in the vertebrae to support the skeleton. Patients can choose among three types of bone grafts: autograft material, or their own bone, taken from their hips, allograft material, or cadaver bone from a bone bank, and artificial bone material. The best choice for a bone graft, the University of Maryland Spine Program says, is using a patient's own bone, since that is most likely to result in successful fusion after the surgery. Bone from a patient's own body may contain living bone cells called osteocytes that can survive being moved from the hip to the spine and carry on their work of making new bone at their new location, says the University of Maryland Spine Program. Cadaver bones carry some risk of infection, but are rigorously tested before use, the University of Maryland Spine Program says. One artificial bone material strong enough to work in spinal fusion surgeries is sea coral harvested from oceans, according to the University of Maryland Spine Program.
