Post Laminectomy Syndrome

Failed Surgical Back Syndrome

In the United States approximately 650,000 surgeries are performed each year on various levels of the spine. According to a study completed and published by the northeastern office of a major health insurance carrier in 2002, 75% or 3 out of 4 patients undergoing this type of surgery experienced either the same, or new onset pain following the surgery.
      While the reasons and goals of various forms of spine surgeries are well accepted and medically necessary, the fact remains that any form of invasion into the body must include a healing process during which significant scar tissue can form, often causing irritation to surrounding nerves and other structures which can result in chronic pain.
       In past years many physicians felt that periodic injections of epidural steroids could help relieve this form of discomfort. However, pain physicians trained in interventional techniques have developed more detailed ways of determining the specific sources of this pain. Because of epidural space may be partially closed with scar tissue, medication may not get to the appropriate areas to effect relief. Additionally, since all structures of the spine including nerves and spinal cord are affected by an epidural injection, pain relief may occur for a time, though the precise area causing the pain cannot be localized.

    At TPMA, specific diagnostic procedures are designed in an organized fashion to identify specific pain generators which can then be selectively treated to relieve the persistent painful condition, thereby allowing easier rehabilitation and reconditioning of normal function. Using a variety of modalities which are minimally invasive and always completed on an outpatient basis, our physicians are able to effect specific levels of pain relief and functional improvement in a short time. Follow-up referrals are then made for various forms of physical therapy and reconditioning.

Ashley M. Classen, D.O, F.A.O.C.A.  &  E. Jo Bailey, M.D.
1401 Henderson Street  •  Fort Worth, Texas 76102
Phone 817.332.3664  •  Fax 817.334.0575