Simply put, failed back surgery means you have persistent back or neck pain after spine surgery. In other words, your and your surgeon’s expected surgery outcome—that your spine pain would be minimized or eliminated—didn’t happen.
In addition to chronic back pain, other symptoms of failed back surgery include neurological symptoms (eg, numbness, weakness, tingling sensations), leg pain, and radicular pain (pain that spreads from one area of the body to another, such as from your neck down to your arm).
In addition to reducing your pain, you may have expected spine surgery to impact other facets of your life. Improving your function, quality of life, and ease of daily activities all impact the definition of surgery success. Understanding how your life looks after surgery will help your doctor understand whether your pain is related to FBS.
To be diagnosed with FBS, your doctor must be able to link your current spinal problem to your previous spinal surgery. For example: If you now have back pain 5 years after your spine surgery, your doctor may find that the cause of your new pain is wear and tear on your spine due to aging (eg, degenerative changes), not your previous surgery.
