Surgery Not Better for Spine Narrowing

This one, reported in US News and World Report, surprised me.  When someone’s spinal health is neglected, the spine will degenerate.  Spinal stenosis occurs when the degeneration is so bad that there isn’t room for the nerves, including the spinal cord itself.  These people will usually get relief from chiropractic care, but the degeneration is permanent, so the relief they’ll get isn’t going to last as long as everyone would like.  With these people, I always thought that surgery might be a reasonable alternative to “open things up again.”  Not a great place to be, but when you’ve neglected your health long enough, bad solutions can be necessary.  Well, this latest study shows that the results of the surgery are also not long-lasting and that “after eight years of follow-up, there were no significant differences between the two groups (surgical vs. “conservative”) in terms of pain, functioning or disability.” 

http://health.usnews.com/health-news/articles/2015/01/19/surgery-not-better-for-spine-narrowing-study-finds