teteri66

Your first post said "i"m 54 years old and my surgeon recommend a pedical screw procedure for a belateral L4 fracures grade 2/10 mm of anterolisthesis of L4 and L5 also severe bilateral L4-5 foraminal stenosis i really scared being my first back surgery , but feel the pain has gotten to a point where i should have it i like to hear from some people who had good results from this procedure it seem most don't benefit at all thanks ahead for any comments "

I guess my first comment would be to suggest that you get more than one opinion before proceeding with a fusion. It is a big surgery and you want to be sure that the right procedure has been selected for what ails you.

It is of concern to me that the doctor thought the issues were at L4-L5 and now has changed his mind. I don't know the circumstances, but unless you have had testing such as a discogram, I would discuss this with him. The worst thing is going through all the pain, time and expense of major back surgery only to find out six months later, that it did nothing for the pain because the wrong area was operated on. This is not all that uncommon when it comes to back problems.

Your surgeon has selected a procedure which is actually two surgeries -- one going in from the front, then that part of the surgery is closed, the patient is flipped over and then a second procedure is performed to insert the hardware from the back. Slang for this way of doing a fusion is to call it a "360."

This is a good way to assure that you will end up with a strong fusion...but it does involve two incisions, so a bit more to recover from.

Many people currently on the board have had a lumbar fusion and should be able to answer questions you may have. Please feel free to post with particular concerns.