Failed lumbar surgery

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Thamer A Hamdan

University of Basrah, Iraq

: J Spine Neurosurg

Abstract

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Failure of lumbar spine surgery is the unsatisfactory outcome of spine surgery, the pre-operative suffering of which may remain the same or even become worse, or a new symptom may appear. It is the failure to alleviate pain or reverse the neurological deficit. Failure of surgery results in patient disability, increased health cost and loss of patient work. Failure may be due to failed surgeon or nature of the disease. Failed surgeon means poor patient selection or wrong decision or bad dissection. The most common causes of failed lumbar surgery include recurrent disc herniation, stenosis, arachnoiditis, epidural fibrosis, instability, dural tear and disc space infection. To avoid failed lumbar surgery, the surgeon should treat the underlying cause or causes after a pin point diagnosis, stabilize the patient’s personality and psychology, perform an optimal surgical technique and avoid half way surgery as much as possible. Lastly, the surgeon should not hesitate to re-operate if there is a solid base, otherwise more failures will happen. The best results are always following the first surgery. Second procedure for failed first surgery have only 50% success rate and further procedure may worsen the patient condition.

Biography

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Thamer A Hamdan is a Professor of Orthopaedic Surgery at the Teaching Hospital and Medical School and the Chancellor of the University of Basrah-Iraq. He is an International Surgical Advisor at the Royal College of Surgeons of Edinburgh. He is an Iraqi Scientist Grade A. He is the winner of, “One of the Outstanding People of the 20th Century, Cambridge, UK”, “Man of the Year 2003, USA”, “Gerhard Kuncher Award 2000”, “Distinguished Professor of the Iraqi Universities, 2003, the Ministry of Higher Education and Scientific Research”.