Breaking Down Back Pain

I caught the beginning of this show last night on Discovery Times channel called "Breaking Down Back Pain" and it was very interesting. It is supposed to be on again today at 1pm CST as well as later in the evening.

Anyway, they specifically covered one woman and her back pain as part of the show. She had the same exact symptoms as I did way back when and as they were telling her story I just looked at my wife and said Spondylolisthesis. Sure as heck they diagnosed her with it and then they covered her going to the doc's and through her surgery to repair.

Now that in itself was cool but not the bigger point of the show. What they were trying to get across, or at least what I took from it, was that while there has not been a rise in the number of people complaining about back pain in the last few decades there has been a 77% increase in the number of people having surgery to correct or relieve back problems.

More interesting was that spinal surgery is unregulated by the government UNLESS there is hardware that will be installed. I found that to be completely shocking. They also mentioned that while neurosurgeons make on average about $500,000 (US) each year, some of them make more then that from, now get this, ENDORSEMENTS from medical device companies.

I was floored when I heard that but more so when I heard doctors are literally taking money from these companies. Basically if the doctor will use that companies products during surgeries they will pay them. It makes it seem like professional sports figures and all their endorsements. Now for the most part I am sure that the doctors are going to be very cautious in how they accept money and what products they will use. Then again there are some docs out there that have no scruples what so ever and are driven only by the almighty dollar.

Further in to the story they discuss that since there is no real governance over spinal surgery that a doctor is not compelled to notify the patient of any conflicts of interest he may be facing. Now if I was a patient I would very much like to know what the doc is doing in his professional life if he is going to be cutting on me and I asked. I also spoke to his peers and the patients that I met in his waiting room. I was not about to let some crackpot cut me open until I was sure of their abilities and integrity. I got lucky, my docs are top notch.

They really harped on Medicare and doctors willing to rush right in to surgery as a way to relieve back pain. Apparently the more intricate the surgery the more Medicare will pay the doctors. Almost like a reward for doing work that may not be needed in the first place. They also nailed some of the doctors who perform surgeries not quite needless but perhaps excessively.

One aspect of the show covered was experts reading films from CT scans and MRI's. While films may show a spinal deformity it does not mean that it is the cause of the pain and that rushing in to the operating room may not fix the problem. My doctors and I had this very same conversation prior to my surgery. They then discussed that other methods such as epidural's and/or physical therapy are able alleviate many of the problems and surgery is not needed at all.

Now when I first complained of lower back pain the first thing my doctor did was order some x-rays. We were looking for sciatica and instead found spondylolisthesis. My personal physician is a great doctor and is well educated, he sat me down and explained it all to me and basically said that we will do everything we can to avoid having to go through surgery. We laid out a pain management plain that included epidurals, physical therapy and light pain meds. It was only after 3 ESI's and physical therapy which seemed to offer little if any relief did my doctor send me to see the neurosurgeon. Even then we still did not have surgery for another 6 months.

I am glad that they have shows like this being aired. Not so much from a patients perspective but for those who do not have pain and do not understand what some of us go through. Back pain just happens to be the bastard child. No one wants it and they certainly do not like to admit it exists. The looks I get or the comments people make when they ask what happened is amazing. Many people hear that you "broke" your back and they can only imagine someone being in a wheel chair for the rest of their lives. They only think paralyzed, nothing else.