Can lumbar surgery cause neck and arm pain??

Question

My surgery was over 6hrs. and I had L4-L3,L3-L2 fused with laminectomies. Since then my neck and shoulder pain(I had previous discomfort) is very bad. I've heard the table used for the surgery can cause these problems. My hands are clumsy and weak also.Surgery was 4mo's. ago.

Answer 1

Yes, lumber surgery can cause this type of pain and a number of others..............i know, i suffer from severe scoliosis and had to have my lumber fused in 2005. I had 2 major back surgeries, first they put hardware in and that didn't work out and THEN they took that out and fused my lumber. I had a 45 degree curve in my spine which made me leaning WAYYYYYYY to my right. So after the fusion i started PT and my left hip started hurting and my right knee blew up!!!!!!!!!!!!!! Anyway, to make a LONG story short, i had to have knee surgery so that i could have a TOTAL HIP REPLACEMENT!!!!!!!!! It's been about 5 weeks now and my hip hardly hurts...it's my back and knee that hurts...............my back mainly.......so YES, all kinds of problems can pop up after back surgery............................

Answer 2

A chiropractor may have prevented the need for the surgery but that is water under the bridge your muscles have been assulted

Much pain is from muscles below is an example of what may help (based on headaches).
Begin with a couple swigs of molasses or a couple of bananas daily - magnesium (which regulates many things in the body) and potassium (a needed building block for muscles).
Drink at least 1/2 gallons of water per day. Running a body low on water is like running a car low on oil is the analogy the head of neurology at UCDavis told my husband about 10 years ago.

Now to the cause - muscles - your back, neck shoulders and head have tender spots. They are knots in the fibers of the muscles called trigger points. It makes the muscles tight which makes them press on nerves and other things causing the pain.

The cure - start with a professional massage, you will also want to go back over any place you can get to 6-12 times per session up to 6 times per day rubbing (or lightly scratching on your head) every where that is tender until the knots go away. The place where the skull connects to the spine press up under the edge of the skull (to get to those muscles).

For more information read The Trigger Point Therapy Workbook by Davies. It teaches what to do and where the pain comes from.

Answer 3

Degenerative Disc Disease is not a disease, but part of natural aging. What happens is the discs those sponges between the vertebra, spine bones, dehydrate and so the discs shrink and eventually become solid rather than sponges. A narrow disc means the process has started, the nice big thick water filled disc had dehydrated, now shrunk and narrow. I assume this showed on a MRI and the natural process is normal, no disc bulge, no prolapse, all is normal. I am menopausal or climacteric, nice word and my symptoms, where do you really want to start. Head ache, ear ache, throbbing, woke up this morning and had a numb ear could not hear anything, it just goes on. Chances are these symptoms are all hormonal. I am 48 so this Climacteric is 'fun?' Fallen down the teak stairs three times, why who knows?

Answer 4

Lumbar vertebrae are in lower back and any dammage would have produced pain / paralysis in legs.
Probably injections would have produced this problem.
Go to an expert acupuncturist, he will solve the problem.

Answer 5

Have you seen a physiotherapist?