About Spine Surgeons

Spine surgeons receive their primary medical training as either neurosurgeons or orthopedic surgeons. Recently, these two groups have become more and more similar in the ways in which they diagnose and treat back pain. When most patients see a surgeon for the first time they often have a thousand questions: Will my pain last forever? What can I do to make it better? Am I going to be crippled? Will I need to have surgery?

In contrast, most surgeons are primarily concerned with the question of whether or not the cause of the back pain can and should be corrected with surgery. In this way, spine surgeons play an important role in determining who should receive non-operative treatment, and who is unlikely to get better without surgery. While there is no doubt that spine surgeons are the best resource in your medical community for determining whether or not you need surgery, they are often not as practiced in the art of conservative management of low back pain as other health care providers. Since almost 95% of patients with low back pain do not need to have surgery, a spine surgeon may not be the first doctor to start with if you are having low back pain. However, there are a few warning signs that you should be aware of that are your body's way of telling you that you need to see a surgeon first.

Some of the warning signs that you should see a surgeon when you are having back pain include:

• Changes in the way your bowel and bladder work, causing incontinence or difficulty controlling your bowel movements.
• Weakness in the muscles of your legs, a feeling of instability when you walk, or progressive decrease in the distance that you can walk.
• Pain and numbness that travels down your legs, especially when it is worse with sneezing, coughing, or sitting down.

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