Spine surgery in Tijuana

What spine surgery treats

Spine surgery solves two mechanical problems: compression of a nervous structure — a root or the cord — and instability of a segment that moves more than it should. Practically everything operated on in the spine falls into one of those two categories, or both at once.

That distinction explains why one patient is offered decompression alone and another decompression plus fusion. It is not a surgeon's preference: it is that in the second case instability is demonstrated, or the necessary decompression would leave the segment unstable.

The commonest conditions

Lumbar disc herniation with sciatica, lumbar canal stenosis with claudication on walking, cervical disc herniation with arm-radiating pain, cervical myelopathy, spondylolisthesis, adult degenerative scoliosis, osteoporotic vertebral fractures and spinal trauma.

Also vertebral and spinal cord tumours, vertebral infections, syringomyelia, congenital malformations of the spine, myelomeningocele and tethered cord syndrome. The conditions section covers the commonest one by one.

Why many patients do not need surgery

It is worth saying plainly: most lumbar disc herniations improve without surgery. With adequate analgesia, directed physiotherapy and controlled activity, a very high proportion of patients are substantially better within six to twelve weeks, because the herniated fragment tends to shrink on its own.

Moreover, MRI scans of people with no pain at all frequently show degenerated discs and protrusions. A herniation on an image is not, by itself, a surgical indication. What supports one is failure of properly delivered conservative treatment, progressive motor deficit, or cauda equina syndrome, which is an emergency.

When surgery genuinely is the answer

There are scenarios where waiting has a cost. Cauda equina syndrome — difficulty passing urine, incontinence, saddle numbness — is an emergency measured in hours. Progressive loss of strength in a leg or a hand does not allow months of observation either.

Cervical myelopathy, with clumsy hands and unsteady gait, tends to progress, and there surgery aims above all to halt deterioration. And disabling radicular pain that has not settled with proper treatment is a legitimate indication: microdiscectomy relieves leg pain sooner, sometimes far sooner, than waiting does.