Even though the following description does not happen in 100% of traumatic spine operations, it is something that could potentially happen to any patient; therefore, it should be considered before making a decision about spine surgery.
In traumatic spine surgery, supporting structures of the spine are cut or removed which causes instability. Instability is the abnormal movement of that segment of the spine producing back and/or leg pain. This problem will end up most likely with a recommendation of FUSION; once you cross that bridge..there’s no return. With fusion the overall patient satisfaction does not exceed 60 % and 40% of the patient’s condition remain the same or get even worse. Bio-mechanically speaking, fused discs do not carry load; therefore, the load is transferred to adjacent levels which get overwhelmed; this in turn leads to more disc failures and surgeries.
Multiple spine operations push many patients over the edge. Unfortunately, under these circumstances, patients will most likely have severe pain and very few solutions other than palliative pain management. This condition is called FAILED BACK SURGERY SYNDROME.