Will lumbar spinal fusion solve my leg pain or just add new pain?

@roma76 Welcome to Connect. I am a spine surgery patient, and had a cervical fusion that for me took away all my pain. Of course, a surgical experience is different for every patient. Generally speaking, the sooner decompression surgery corrects a problem, the less chance there is for permanent nerve damage. If nerves have been compressed a long time, they may be painful after surgery, and nerves take a very long to heal. Lumbar surgery is a harder recovery than cervical surgery. There is also healing the surgical path and with lumbar surgery, they are cutting through more muscle to get to the spine. My experience was that surgery immediately resolved all the pain that was generated by compression in my spine, and what was left was the pain from the surgical path. Sometimes, lumbar spine patients go through rehab after surgery. That would be a good question to ask your surgeon. Often they can't promise to relieve pain, and they promise to improve function.

Thanks so much for the response. I’m sure all spine surgery patients are nervous and I am no exception. My surgeon told us that by a month post-op I should have less pain than I do now. That sounds pretty good to me! It helps to hear that things turned out so well for you.

I'm a 69 yo male eight weeks post op from a spinal fusion of S-1, L-5 & L-4. Woke up in recovery room with no nerve pain (sciatica) at all.

I do have some lower right leg numbness but my lumbar nerve roots were kinked due to the degenerative disc pathology.

Spine surgery is complicated & individualized.

Choose a fellowship trained orthopedist or a neurosurgeon with spine experience. Also, get a PT experienced in spine rehab.

Good luck & keep the faith!☮️

Promising history from your experience! My surgeon is part of a holistic group of practitioners that work in surgical and post -op teams for spine care. I had a spine specialist PT before deciding on surgery and hope the hospital PT has similar experience. Based on your helpful post, I will ask! I have been so hobbled by radiculopathy that I feel very reconditioned and I worry about my basic strength after months of doing less and less. I am 76, female, and formerly very active.

I just had a lumbar laminectomy.
Don't know if it will help or not.I am in severe pain

No one suggested rehab at all to me

I am so sorry that your pain is so bad. I hope as you heal from the laminectomy this will wane. Are they able to give you anything for some relief? Does ice help at all? Here’s to steady improvement.

Ice doesn't help at all . Gave me hydrocodone and oxycodone. Neither help. Ice cubes hurt my back and my icebergs leak water all over. Thanks for your concern. Prayers please

I got an ice water delivery machine for shoulder surgery but they make them with pads that fit backs, too. They look like small picnic coolers and you fill them with water and ice (I used plastic bottles with frozen water). The cooling is gentle-not focused and harsh like ice cubes and no water or condensation moisture comes in contact with you or your wound site which is important to keep dry. I am glad I saved my machine to use now. You can set it for the time you want cold circulating through.

Hi I had minimal invasive spinal fusion of l4-5 June 22nd. I had a lot of different pains going on. Numbness in right leg all the way to toes. It later disappeared in right but went to left. I had hip and buttocks pain, groin pain which they did not think fusion would do anything for groin pain. Leg pain. I was dealing with this for 2 1/2 years. I was holding out for a device that just recently fda approved which I thought sounded better than fusion, but unfortunately 2 Dr's. said it wouldn't work for me. Maybe because I have too much scoliosis. Anyway all these aches and pains and numbness I had before spinal fusion I wondered is it because of my spinal stenosis and spondylolisthesis. Well now that I've had my fusion I'm thinking yes. Even my groin pain is gone. I only now in my left groin have it feels like someone squeezing an organ occasionally which I did have before but not the groin pain I was referring to. The groin pain would start when walking around at lower panty line which Dr. thought was arthritis. But pretty much all pain is gone or deteriating quite a bit. I only took pain meds 4 days. Hope you do well with your surgery.