Taking your 2nd point 1st China, the way Medics describe and name procedures are purposely vague and confusing. They don't want the likes of you and I knowing too much detail about whats going to happen to us 'or' how poor the probable clinical outcome will be! If they make a mess, we will be none the wiser!!
I don't know whether you were told the same as me, I know a lot of people have been, but when I consulted a Spine Surgeon about a laminectomy, he told me that I would probably have the same levels of pain after the operation and would possibly experience even worse pain levels after the operation!! He said, that as I was very fit for my age, the procedure was, too destructive, could make things worse and he did not want to carry out the procedure on me!
You see China, the 'Laminectomy' and 'discectomy' are different things,
so you will probably be having both, it all depends on the start point of the disccussion. Laminectomy, describes 'the procedure that gains the access' to the area that the Surgeon wishes to operate on, in your spine system. There are two main types of laminectomy;
Open back
and
Minimally invasive
Open back laminectomy, involves a 4 or (up to) 6 inch initial incision.
Surgeons then cut down towards the 'working' area, in this process they cut and disect 4 - 6 inches of, skin, tissue, nerves, muscle, vertibral lamina, spinal ligaments and disc tendons. If a muscle is attached to a part of the 'vertibral lamina' that needs to be removed in order to gain access to the working area, the Surgeon will 'detach' the muscle tendon that attaches it to the lamina and try to re-attach it after the opertaion! These areas are damaged in this way, before Surgeons carry out any repairs or improvements to decompress the nerve strands.
The Surgeons then look in to the working area from the outside of the body using microscopes and/or x-ray visualiseation equiptment like flouroscopes.
Once this has been achieved, the Surgeons can carry out a variety of decomression procedures, such as, nerve root decompression, osteophyte removal, vertibral fusion and of course discectomy.
Standard minimally invasive laminectomy, and its destruction, is exactly the same as the 'open back' one above,
except that the initial incision is usually only 2 - 3 inches long and whilst it damages the same things, nerves, tissue and muscle etc, this version 'initially' damages a smaller area of all of those things.
However, what happens next, does increase the damage area and types of things damaged. In this procedure, Having made the incision, the Surgeon inserts a 'large retractor' in to the hole in the back, in order to open up the incision site, this is so that the 'final working area' is about the same size as that of the open back laminectomy. This stretching process can and does cause additional tearing, brusing and crushing damage!
All of these damaged areas then have to heal after the operation, and it is this that which causes a lot of the post operative complications, even if the discectomy was a success! This is why most patients complain of post op pains and problems, they don't always heal properly!! This is why the chances of a full clinical recovery from standard spinal surgery is poor and has a long rehab time scale.
Discectomy, is the process of clearing leaking nucleus debris, bulging anulus and tethering nerves and as much as possible reduce the extent of the bulging and impingements.
-----------------------------------------------------------------------
China, are your transferred leg pains traveling down the front or the back of your left leg?
-----------------------------------------------------------------------
Get your Consultant to explain everything about the procedure (in detail)
including,
what the Safety rates are for this procedure?
what the Effecivness rates are for this procedure?
What will the incision size be?
How long before you can drive?
What help can you get with post operative core stability execises?
How long will you be in hospital?
What level will he be operating on?
He won't want to tell you these things, and he won't like having to, but you must get him to explain so that you know what you are getting yourself in to!!
All the very best.
SPINELF