Numbness in the lower leg after minimally invasive lumbar spine surgery

Most people with lumbar disease will not choose surgery, because when they have lumbar pain, they can usually just endure it and it will go away. However, people with more serious lumbar disease need to undergo minimally invasive surgery to adjust their lumbar spine. If lumbar disease is serious, you will basically have lumbar pain every day, which has a great impact on your daily life. However, some patients found that their calves were numb after undergoing minimally invasive lumbar spine surgery. What is going on?

In fact, this situation is quite common and needs to be analyzed specifically based on the situation of each patient.

Case 1: I still feel back pain after the surgery, and the pain has not been relieved

This situation is indeed quite common, because many patients suffer from lumbar muscle strain while suffering from lumbar disc herniation. The herniated disc is removed surgically, but the muscle pain is sometimes not relieved quickly, and sometimes physical therapy is needed, such as applying plasters, doing physical therapy and hot compresses, etc. Some patients may also experience some pain at the puncture site, which will take about a week to slowly subside.

Case 2: The pain disappeared after surgery, but it started again 3-5 days later and was worse than before surgery

After the surgery relieves the pressure of the protruding intervertebral disc on the nerves, sometimes the nerves will have some reactive edema. This edema usually appears 3 to 5 days after the surgery, which is why the patient feels more pain than before the surgery. At this time, it is recommended that patients rest in bed as much as possible, reduce activities, and even use some anti-inflammatory and analgesic drugs and nerve dehydration drugs for observation for a period of time. For most patients, the pain will disappear after 7 to 10 days. If the pain persists, the patient needs to go to the hospital for further examination.

Situation 3: After surgery, not only the waist and legs hurt, but other parts of the body also hurt

Theoretically, minimally invasive lumbar disc herniation surgery will not cause pain in other parts of the body, but some patients will have some psychological effects. A patient once said to me one week after the operation: "Why do I feel cold every day? Is it caused by the surgery?" As a result, the patient recovered after taking cold medicine for a few days. If you experience physical discomfort after a surgery, you will naturally wonder if it is related to the surgery. This is human nature, but under normal circumstances, minimally invasive surgery on the lumbar spine will not cause discomfort in other parts of the body.