New Year, New Back: Reclaim Your Life with Lumbar Disc Replacement

As we enter a new year, it’s always a good time to take stock and review what's serving you well and what isn’t. If your lower back falls into this second category thanks to chronic pain, you certainly aren’t alone — low back pain is the leading cause of disability around the world, and the issue is predicted to get worse.

If low back pain has hijacked your life and you want to make this the year that you find a sustainable and effective solution, you’re in the right place.

As leading experts in neurosurgery, Dr. Ali H. Mesiwala and his team have been helping patients with low back pain to find much-needed relief for decades. One of the areas in which we’ve had great success is artificial disc replacement surgery, a procedure Dr. Mesiwala has been performing since 2008.

Here’s a look at how this approach to low back pain is providing patients a new lease on life.

Who can benefit from artificial disc replacement surgery?

Many different roads to low back pain range from chronic muscle spasms to disc-related issues that lead to no small amount of low back pain.

Artificial disc replacement surgery is designed to address the latter: disc-related low back pain, which is quite common. When the discs in your spine lose moisture and break down, it can lead to painful nerve compression, typically in areas where your spine moves most, including your neck and lower back.

Called degenerative disc disease, this issue develops in most of us with age, but it doesn’t always lead to symptoms. When it does, such as in the form of chronic sciatica or recurring herniated discs, life can get uncomfortable and even the smallest movements can lead to pain thanks to nerve compression.

What artificial disc replacement surgery offers

Traditionally, disc-related, low back pain has been addressed with lumbar spinal fusion and decompression surgery. During this procedure, the surgeon removes the diseased disc and fuses the two vertebrae on either end together.

Though effective, there are issues with this approach, such as adjacent disc segment disease. 

When a disc is removed and two vertebral segments are fused together, it creates a longer vertebral segment that then places more pressure on the discs above and below the fusion. As a result, studies have found that more than a third of people develop adjacent disc disease after 10 years and more than a quarter require follow-up surgery.

With artificial disc replacement surgery, our goal is to avoid this outcome. As the name suggests, with this approach, Dr. Mesiwala removes the diseased disc and replaces it with an artificial one that offers several benefits, including:

• Avoiding adjacent disc segment issues
• Smaller incisions
• Faster recovery
• Preservation of motion

This last one is important — when your vertebrae are fused together, you lose range of motion. Conversely, with artificial disc replacement, you can retain this motion.

Good candidates for artificial disc replacement surgery

As we already stated, artificial disc replacement surgery is only meant for disc-related, low back problems. Outside of this criterium, we generally make recommendations on a  case-by-case basis as there are many other variables, such as:

• Weight (having obesity can negatively impact low back surgical outcomes)
• Smoking
• Age
• Activity level
• Prior medical history

As well, we cannot perform this procedure if you’ve already had a spinal fusion.

The best way to figure out whether artificial disc replacement surgery is available to you is to come in and sit down with Dr. Mesiwala for an evaluation. To set that in motion, please contact one of our offices in Newport Beach, Marina del Rey, or Rancho Cucamonga, California, to schedule an appointment.