Dr. Stefano Sinicropi, M.D.

Whenever you’re preparing to undergo a surgery, unless you’ve been told differently, you expect the operation to fix your issue. Unfortunately, not everyone experiences the intended relief after a spinal operation. So what should you do if your surgery fails or you aren’t achieving the expected relief? We tackle the question of what to do after a failed back surgery in today’s blog.

Failed Spine Surgery

Spine surgeries can fail for a number of reasons, but it’s important that you’re focused on resolving the issue instead of seeking to place blame. Surgeries can fail for a variety of reasons, and not every failure is the result of a surgeon or patient error. Sure, a mistake can be made during surgery or you can try to rehab to quickly after the operation, but an overwhelming number of failed operations simply fail for a myriad of uncontrollable reasons. Scar tissue can envelop a nerve after surgery, or an operation can shift the way force is distributed in our spine, affecting other areas. We don’t want to ignore why the failure happened, but your main goal should be working with your surgeon to find a solution.

The first thing you want to do if you believe your surgery didn’t go as planned is to set up a consultation with the surgeon who performed the initial operation. They did the work, so they can conduct a subsequent exam to understand what went wrong with the operation. Oftentimes they can pinpoint the issue and suggest recourse, whether that’s in the form of a subsequent surgery, or a change in your rehab plan.

Seeking A Second Opinion

While we strive to treat every patient who walks into our office with respect, there are always a few surgeons out there who will be a little taken aback by your claims that the operation they performed did not achieve the assumed results. Whether this was because of a breakdown in communication, expectations or because their was a problem during surgery, your best bet if you feel that you aren’t getting the care you deserve from one clinic is to seek out a second opinion. Sometimes a second set of eyes can see something that the first surgeon missed, or maybe they can simply do a better job of helping you manage expectations.

Maple Grove Spine Surgeon

We see plenty of patients who are seeking a second opinion. Some of them want a fresh pair of eyes on the problem before they go under the knife for the first time, while other times patients want to learn why their surgery didn’t go as expected. We help people in all stages of the surgical process, and we’d be more than happy to provide you with a second opinion on your spine condition. To set up a consultation, click here to visit our contact page and make an appointment.

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