My Spine - Lumbar
Explanation: Unexpected events can take place during or after operations.
This can include reactions to medications, a heart attack, a stroke, kidney fail-
ure, lung failure, blood clots in the legs or severe infections. Each one of these
conditions will require further treatment and rarely these are serious enough
to lead to death.
Risk: It is possible that the instrumentation that is used during an operation
may dislodge, move or fail.
Explanation: Instrumentation and prosthesis used in spinal surgery are for-
eign bodies and are used to correct the alignment of the spine and to allow a
bony fusion to occur. In some cases this instrumentation may fail (break),
move or dislodge and can compress sensitive tissue, necessitating removal or
replacement of this instrumentation.
Risk: It is possible that fusing a segment of the lumbar spine, may lead to
accelerated wear and tear at the adjacent segments of the spine leading to
further spinal surgery.
Explanation: The biomechanical properties of the segment of the spine that
is being fused changes and becomes less mobile. This may cause a lever
action on the adjacent segments that is thought to accelerate the wear and tear
at the adjacent segments. In an attempt to overcome this, it is possible in
selected cases to remove the disc that is causing nerve compression and
replace it with an artificial disc rather than performing a fusion (see the chap-
ter Lumbar Total Disc Arthroplasty).
Risk: It is possible that a major blood vessel may be damaged during sur-
gery.
Explanation: In anterior (from the front) surgical approaches to lumbar sur-
gery, some of the major blood vessels may be damaged. These complications
rates vary according to the type of surgery and many technical factors. This
may be a very serious complication and may even lead to the death of the
patient.
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