Surgery and Emerging treatments

Surgery may sometimes be appropriate for patients with:

* Lumbar disc herniation or degenerative disc disease
* Spinal stenosis from lumbar disc herniation, degenerative joint disease, or spondylolisthesis
* Scoliosis
* Compression fracture

* Vertebroplasty involves the percutaneous injection of surgical cement into vertebral bodies that have collapsed due to compression fractures. This new procedure is far less invasive than surgery, but may be complicated by the entry of cement into Batson's plexus with subsequent spread to the lungs or into the spinal canal. Ideally this procedure can result in rapid pain relief.
* The use of specific biologic inhibitors of the inflammatory cytokine tumor necrosis factor-alpha may result in rapid relief of disc-related back pain. [31]