After a laminectomy you can bend after 2 weeks have passed.
You should avoid bending, twisting and doing any lifting for at least 2 weeks after the laminectomy to allow the pain to subside and the back muscles to get stronger.
The recovery time from a laminectomy is around 4 to 6 weeks for full recovery.
However you should be able to go home the same day after the Laminectomy and should begin healing within a week or so.
During the recovery after a laminectomy you can expect your back to feel stiff or sore after surgery.
This should improve in the weeks after surgery.
You may have trouble sitting or standing in one position for very long and may need pain medicine in the weeks after your surgery.
Laminectomy is not very dangerous at all and in fact a laminectomy is considered very safe although some complications and side effects can occur such as bleeding.
The side effects of a laminectomy include.
Worsening back pain.
Bowel or bladder problems including urinary and or bowel incontinence.
Spinal Fluid Leak.
Nerve damage.
Blood clots.
Medical or anesthesia problems.
Infection and bleeding.
Neural tissue damage.
Instability.
Adjacent Level degeneration.
Continued neurogenic claudication.
The difference between a laminectomy and a discectomy is a discectomy is a procedure that is done to remove a portion of a herniated disc in your spine that is bulging and pushing on a nerve and a laminectomy is a procedure that is done to remove a greater portion of your bone called Lamina that is covering the roof of your spinal canal.
A Laminectomy is not major surgery and instead a Laminectomy is considered minor surgery because it's a minimally invasive outpatient procedure.
A laminectomy is an outpatient surgery and is also minimally invasive.
After you have the Laminectomy you will go home the same day.
The Laminectomy is done to take pressure off of your compressed spinal nerves, or spinal stenosis which is causing back pain.
The success rate of a laminectomy is 80 percent.
Out of 100 percent of the laminectomy surgeries that are performed about 20 percent of those laminectomy surgeries have complications.
But 80 percent of those laminectomy surgeries go through just fine without complications.
The average time it takes to perform Laminectomy surgery is around 1 to 3 hours.
Most Laminectomy surgeries take no longer than a couple hours while some may take a bit longer than 2 to 3 hours.
You should also have someone drive you to the hospital and drive you home because you won't be able to drive if you get released from the hospital.
In some cases the Laminectomy can weaken the spine but in most cases it does not.
If you're spine already is weakened some because of spine issues then the laminectomy may weaken the spine a little more.
However most people who do have a laminectomy surgery do not have a weaker spine and it's just as strong as it was before.
A laminectomy is a major surgery.
Although most laminectomy surgeries go smoothly without much if any complications there are still potential complications and risks associated with the laminectomy surgery.
Some risks and complications that come along with having laminectomy surgery are things such as spinal fluid leak, nerve damage, blood clots, bleeding, infections, worsening of chronic back pain.
There's also some risk associated with the anesthesia that you will be put to sleep with.
But most laminectomy surgeries go through just fine and many people who have the laminectomy surgery come out of it without any problems.