EXERCISE AFTER BACK SURGERY SPEEDS RECOVERY

Exercise therapy after surgery for a slipped disc may help people get over their pain and disability more quickly, a research review suggests.

People who suffer persistent pain from a slipped disc in the lower, or lumbar, spine are often treated with surgery, but the value of post-surgery exercise therapy has been questioned.

Some surgeons believe that many patients do not need rehabilitation at all - with one concern being that exercise soon after surgery may actually cause re-injury.

But in the new review, which covered 14 previous clinical trials, researchers found that in general, patients who received exercise therapy got over their pain and physical limitations sooner. And there was no evidence that rehab raised the risk of repeat surgery.

The results are published in the Cochrane Library, a publication of the Cochrane Collaboration, an international research organization that evaluates medical evidence.
According to the lead researcher the findings suggest that it is a "good idea" to get into an exercise program and return to daily activities as soon as possible after lumbar disc surgery.
"It seems that exercise programs lead to quicker relief from pain and disability compared to no treatment," the researcher told Reuters Health.

In addition, he and his colleagues found, exercise programs that were more intense tended to yield better results than low-intensity exercise.

The studies reviewed were varied in the rehab programs used, so it's still not clear what types of exercise are most effective for recovering from lumbar disc surgery.

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Super Healthy Tip...

I have also seen research that showed that exercise and active rehab works as well as back surgery. In other words maybe active rehab programs could prevent many unnecessary surgeries?

Think about this, the common scenario following surgery is for 6-12 weeks of inactivity and time off work, which leads to de-conditioning and problems during the return to activity phase and beyond. I have seen people deteriorate enormously in their overall condition while recovering from spinal surgery and it is a long hard road back to becoming fit and active – many never get back to that point and become invalids.

Imagine instead that the person enrolled in a thorough rehab program which lasted 6-12 weeks and involved treatment and exercise, and even nutritional intervention. Couldn’t cost more than a single surgery and would narrow down the field to those who absolutely had to have the operation…