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Often surgery is not the only answer to a medical
problem. Medicines or treatments other than sur-
gery, such as a bedrest, a course of therapy, chiro-
practic management, or Epidural injections might
help you. These are called conservative treatment
options and they are geared towards treating the
symptoms associated with certain conditions.
As you can see on the graph above these different
forms of conservative management increase in sever-
ity. The most aggressive form of conservative man-
agement you can do with out undergoing surgery is
an injection or an epidural.
Ask Dr. Pazmiño about the benefits and risks of
these other choices. You need to know as much as
possible about the benefits and risks for your proce-
dure prior to making your decision.
One alternative to surgery may be serial observation.
During this period Dr. Pazmiño may need to check
to see if your problem gets better or worse over time.
If it gets worse, you may need surgery right away.
Some signs of worsening are if you develop increas-
ing pain or notice you are losing strength. Another
sign of worsening symptoms is the development of a
cauda equina syndrome where you rapidly develop
pain, weakness, numbness, and a loss of bowel or
bladder function (incontinence).
Surgery on the other hand is designed to treat the
underlying cause of your symptoms or pathology. In
some situations however surgery is only designed to
halt the progression of symptoms, such as paralysis,
from worsening. In many cases surgery can reverse
your symptoms.
Surgical procedures follow a similar course. There
are small minimally invasive procedures, like
microdiscectomies or minimally invasive decom-
pressions. There are also larger reconstructive surgi-
cal options which are often needed for patients with
scoliosis. Which procedure you need depends on
which pathology you have.
For elective procedures you will have to decide
when you are ready to undergo surgery. Some
common questions our patients ask themselves are:
Is my condition limiting my activities?
Am I ready to consider surgical options?
Is my condition limiting my quality of life?
Is my condition limiting what I want to do?
Is my condition limiting my ability to work?
Are injections lasting as long as they once did?
Are conservative treatments still working for me?
Risks of surgery
All operations have some risk. This is why you
and your family need to weigh the benefits of the
operation against the risks of complications or side
effects. Dr. Pazmiño will review the risks of your
specific procedure in detail.
Outcomes
How do you define quality of life? How do you
measure a good outcome? Dr. Pazmiño’s research
has specifically focused on assessing patient out-
comes. He has studied how patients perform after
surgical procedures and has presented his results
at national and international Orthopaedic and
Neurosurgical conferences. Specifically he has
studies how long it takes patients to return to work,
sports, sex, and driving after surgery. Dr. Pazmiño
has studied how long patients remain in the hospi-
tal after surgery, how long they take medications
afterwards and how much weight they lose after a
procedure. Our procedures have provided excel-
lent results in patients with intractable pain and
functional limitations. For more information on our
research please feel free to ask Dr. Pazmiño or refer
to our website
www. spinecal .com.
Questions
It’s natural to have questions about your procedure.
We would love to help. Use the space below to write
down your questions. Ask us. We are here for you.
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CONSERVATIVE
TREATS SYMPTOMS
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SURGERY
TREATS CAUSE