A study published in 2011 in the prestigious journal Spine concluded:
1. Only 26% of those patients electing to have surgery were able to return to work compared to 67% for those who
did not have surgery
2. Of those that chose surgery 27% had to re-operate again
3. 36% of the surgical patients went through some kind of complication
4. 11% of those having surgery were left with permanent disability compared with 2% for those that didn’t, so your risk of disability increases 5.5 times with surgery
5. Those patients that had spinal fusion had to increase their drug dosage 41% after surgery, with 76% having to continue to use drugs
6. Surgical patients had to use drugs 3.6 times longer than those without surgery
