Spine Surgery (Discectomy and Laminectomy)

Sciatica from a slipped disc is an odd kind of pain. The problem is in your lower back, but the worst of it shoots down the buttock and leg, often with numbness or pins and needles. Spinal stenosis, usually after 60, feels different: legs that ache or go numb after a few minutes of walking and ease when you sit or lean forward.

Both come from pressure on nerves. Each disc between the vertebrae (spine bones) has a tough outer ring and a soft centre. If the ring tears, part of the centre can bulge out onto a nerve root, which is a slipped or herniated disc. In stenosis, thickened ligament, bulging disc and bone spurs narrow the canal the nerves run through. A discectomy removes the piece of disc pressing on the nerve. A laminectomy removes part of the bony roof of the spinal canal (the lamina) and the thickened tissue beneath it to give the nerves more room.

Most people with sciatica from a slipped disc get better without an operation, usually within 6 to 12 weeks. For those who don't, surgery usually relieves leg pain faster than waiting. It's much less predictable for back pain alone, and numbness or weakness can take months to recover as the nerve heals.

Spine surgery at Prakash Hospital is done by our orthopaedics team and the neurosurgeons of our neurosciences department, whose operating rooms have surgical microscopes and nerve-monitoring equipment.

An MRI shows where the disc or narrowing is, but the decision rests on your symptoms and examination matching that scan. Plenty of people have disc bulges on MRI with no pain at all.

Walking is the main exercise after spine surgery, starting on the day or the morning after. Long bed rest does more harm than good.