A member asked:

I had a l4-l5 discectomy 5 months ago and still have lots of lower back pain in the mornings mostly, will it ever heal completely?

7 doctors weighed in across 3 answers
Dr. Amin Ashrafzadeh answered

Specializes in Ophthalmology

Sore topic!: Back surgery helps in many cases, but certainly falls shy of expected results more often than not! hope it gets better!

Answered 12/5/2016

5.4k views

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Dr. Nathaniel Drourr answered

Specializes in Pain Management

Pain after surgery: Nervous tissue takes a long time to heal. You must wait anywhere from 6mo up to 1 full year after surgery to see what u r left with. Hope this helps.

Answered 12/29/2014

4.3k views

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Dr. Ki-Hon Lin answered

Specializes in Orthopedic Surgery

Talk to your doctor: I counsel my patients that the primary goal of a discectomy is to relieve a pinched nerve, which thereby will relieve pain radiating down the leg. Relief of back pain is not the main goal of a discectomy, although sometimes we get lucky and the back pain does get better. Back pain can be much trickier to treat and surgery is often not the answer for that, so see your surgeon to discuss options.

Answered 4/8/2016

4.3k views

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