Treatments & Procedures    Surgical Options for Back Pain
Surgery for back pain is a last resort treatment. There are
basically two reasons for surgery for back pain:    • Neural
element compression (or squeezing of nerve roots or nerves) or
pressure on the dura mater (the sac that surrounds the spinal
cord and nerve roots), and   • Back pain. Back pain itself has
two main causes: muscle spasm and mechanical pain.  What is a
muscle spasm?  Muscle spasm is essentially a muscle pull or
charley horse of the back muscles. In this situation, the
muscles of the back are tender to the touch. Bed rest or
inactivity does not usually relieve the pain significantly.
Muscle spasm, as an isolated entity, is a non-surgical problem.
What is mechanical pain?  Mechanical pain is a pain that is deep
and agonizing in nature. It is not related to muscle spasm, and
activity worsens the pain whereas inactivity (such as bed rest)
improves the pain. This pain syndrome is significantly different
than that of muscle spasm. It is pot