"Surgery n. an operation for remedying an injury, ailment, defect, or dysfunction."
Many doctors suggest surgery when the curvature is over 40 degrees and the patient is healthy. About 10% of patients with scoliosis will need an operation. A patient is generally prescribed a Harrington Rod, which is a stainless-steel rod with a ratchet and a hook at each end used to pull out the curve and is fixed by spinal fusion or bone-grafting. The surgery will normally entail posterior spinal fusion; this is performed through the patient's back while they lie on their front. In severe cases two operations may be needed to maximise correction and are usually performed a week apart. This operation is extremely painful and does produce a rather noticeable scar that rarely fades.
Scoliosis surgery is highly complex, involving many hours of work and should only be done by surgeons specialising in the subject who have appropriate training and infrastructure in their surgical units. However, there is a very long waiting list for scoliosis surgery in the UK, and therefore it is often many months before a patient can be operated on.
If surgery is successful it can prevent the curvature from progressing and for reasons of cosmetic nature it could be beneficial. However under no circumstances is an operation a cure.
Although many surgeons have successfully operated on their patients' spines in the last few decades and will highly recommend it, 30 years on from the start of the operation, many patients are experiencing problems with their backs. The most common and severe of these is when the vertebrae wear in S-bend patients, in the centre of their back at the point where the spine has not been fused, as it is the only mobile bit and this can cause premature weakening of the spine and osteoporosis.
There are many issues and after-effects that can stem from such intervention, as an operation, as well as the risk of something going wrong during the operation itself. See Surgery Problems.
The benefits of an operation are mainly confined to the quick-fix results that can be achieved with minimal effort on the side of the patient. Nevertheless, the recovery can be slow and it is by not a cure!!
On the other hand, in some cases, particularly when a patient feels that rehabilitation or other alternative methods of treatment would not work for them, as they do not want the long-term commitment that is required for their success, an operation is the only option.
So my advice is, as always, do your research around the subject and decide for yourself. After all it is your body and you are the one who is going to live with the results for the rest of your life, so make yourself well informed about both sides of the story!!!
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