Failed Back Surgical Syndrome
Failed back surgery syndrome (also called FBSS, or failed back syndrome) is often used to describe the condition of patients who have not had a successful result with back surgery or spine surgery and have experienced continued pain after surgery.
There are many reasons that a back surgery may or may not work, and even with the best surgeon and for the best indications.
Spine surgery is basically able to accomplish only two things:
Decompress a nerve root that is pinched, or
Stabilize a painful joint.
Unfortunately, back surgery or spine surgery cannot literally cut out a patient’s pain. It is only able to change anatomy, and an anatomical lesion (injury) that is a probable cause of back pain must be identified prior to rather than after back surgery or spine surgery.
By far the number one reason back surgeries are not effective and some patients experience continued pain after surgery is because the lesion that was operated on is not in fact the cause of the patient’s pain. Aditionally, surgical intervention for back pain or spine pain often leaves the discs adjacent to the surgical area hypermobile (overly movable) and lead to degeneration or herniation.