Last week, in a post on X, the owner of the platform, Elon Musk Recommended people consider disc alternative in the event that they experience severe neck or back pain.
According to the billionaire’s biography, he suffered from chronic back and neck pain since he tried “judo throw” The 350-pound sumo wrestler was at a Japanese-themed event celebrating his forty second birthday in 2013 and blew out a disc at the bottom of his neck.
In the comments below the post, Musk said the surgery was a “game changer” and significantly reduced his pain.
Musk’s original post has to date had over 50 million views and was generated dispute. So what is disk alternative surgery and what does the evidence tell us about its advantages and harms?
What does disk alternative involve?
Disc alternative is a type of surgery wherein a number of of the spinal discs (the cushion between the bones of the spine, also called vertebrae) are removed and replaced with a man-made disc to keep up movement between the vertebrae. Artificial discs are made of metal or combination made of metal and plastic.
Disk alternative could be performed in case many reasonsincluding slipped discs within the neck, as appears to be the case with Musk.
Disk alternative is possible major surgery. It requires general anesthesia and the surgery often takes 2-4 hours. Most people stay within the hospital for 2-7 days. After surgery, patients can walk, but must avoid physical exercise and driving for 3-6 weeks. You might have to wear a neck brace (after neck surgery) or a back brace (after spine surgery) for about 6 weeks.
Costs vary depending on whether you might have surgery in the general public or private health care system, whether you might have private medical insurance, and in your level of coverage, if that’s the case. In Australia, even when you might have medical insurance, disc alternative surgery can leave you with over A$12,000 out of pocket.
Disc alternative surgery is not performed as often as other spine surgeries (spinal fusion, for example), but its use is increasing.
IN New South Wales for example, privately funded disc alternative rates increased sixfold from 6.2 per million people in 2010–2011 to 38.4 per million in 2019–2020.
What are the advantages and harms?
People considering surgery often consider this option before not having surgery. However, only a few studies have been conducted comparing disc alternative surgery with non-surgical treatment.
Clinical trials are the most effective strategy to check whether treatment is effective. You first want to point out that the brand new treatment is higher than doing nothing, before you begin comparing it with other treatments. In the case of surgical procedures, the following step could also be to check the procedure with non-surgical alternatives.
Unfortunately, these crucial first research steps have been largely missed in disc alternative surgery for neck and back pain. As a result, there is great uncertainty about treatment.
We usually are not aware of any clinical trials examining whether disc alternative is effective in treating neck pain in comparison with nothing or in comparison with non-surgical treatment.
For low back pain, the one clinical trial to our knowledge comparing disc alternative with a non-surgical alternative found that disc alternative surgery was barely simpler than an intensive rehabilitation program after two years AND eight years.
Yan Krukau/Pexels
Complications usually are not unusual and may contain artificial disc dislocation, artificial disc fracture (rupture) and infection.
In the above-mentioned clinical study 26 of 77 patients undergoing surgery a complication occurred inside two years of the follow-up visit, including one one who underwent revision surgery, which resulted in damage to an artery resulting in the necessity to amputate the leg. Revision surgery means redoing the unique surgery if something needs repairing.
Are there effective alternatives?
The very first thing to think about is whether surgery is mandatory. searching second opinion can aid you feel higher informed about your options.
Many surgeons view disc alternative as an alternative choice to spinal fusion, and that is the selection often presented to patients. Indeed, the research evidence used to support disk alternative comes primarily from comparative studies disk alternative Down spinal fusion. These studies show that individuals with neck pain can get better and return to work more quickly after a disc alternative in comparison with a spinal fusion procedure, and that individuals with back pain may get barely more pain relief after a disc alternative than after a spinal fusion procedure.
However, spinal fusion is also not well supported by evidence comparing it to non-surgical alternatives and, like disc alternative, is also expensive and carries a significant risk of harm.
Fortunately, latest, non-surgical treatments can be found to patients neck and back pain, which evidence shows are effective – and less expensive than surgery. These include therapies that address each physical and psychological aspects that contribute to a person’s pain, similar to cognitive-functional therapy.
Although Musk reported good immediate results from disk alternative surgery, given the evidence – or lack thereof – we advise caution when considering this surgery. And for those who’re faced with a selection between disc alternative and spinal fusion, you could want to think about a third alternative: no surgery in any respect.