It is important for all patients to be informed on the general risks they face during any kind of surgery. While the risk of death is the first thing that might come to mind, the reality is that there are very few actual deaths from routine surgical procedures these days. Of course, that number increases when emergency surgeries and surgeries on patients with very advanced cases of cancer and other diseases are also considered. A few surgical risks faced by all patients include: an excessive loss of blood during the procedure; a bad reaction to the general anesthetic; a serious post-operative infection at the surgical site; and, the possibility of contracting a hospital-borne infection during recovery.
Spinal Fusion Surgery: Specific Post-Operative Risks
Many spinal fusion Baltimore MD procedures are performed annually with great outcomes. It is important, though, for patients having a spinal fusion surgery Baltimore to understand that there are risks from this surgery that will continue to be present for the rest of their lives.
- Some patients experience a loss of height or other kind of physical deformity following surgery. Subsequent attempts to correct these kinds of outcomes become progressively more risky with each attempt. Although it would be unusual, complete disability in terms of walking and other physical activities can result from a failure of spinal fusion surgery.
- Adjacent segment disease occurs when there is a degeneration of the vertebrae either above or below the fusion. This occurs because the fused segment no longer moves. As a result, the adjacent vertebrae experience increased motion, sometimes causing a distressing amount of wear and tear on them.
- Damage to the central nervous system itself can occur due to scarring of the tissue around the spinal cord as a result of the surgery. This condition is called epidural fibrosis. Again, future revisions of the surgery to correct epidural fibrosis become more and more risky.
- Another kind of damage to the central nervous system that sometimes occurs subsequent to fusion surgery is arachnoiditis. It is an inflammation of the membrane around the spinal cord, usually caused by an infection resulting from the surgical incision.
For information on facilities that are capable of treating these types of injuries and taking care of these health issues for patients, visit https://www.medstarunionortho.org.
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