Surgical opinion on disc, spinal canal and deformity problems with Dr. Puneet Rana, visiting senior consultant neurosurgeon.
Most back and neck pain settles without an operation. Rest, physiotherapy, medicines and time resolve the large majority of cases, and a scan showing a bulging disc does not by itself mean surgery is required. Many people are advised an operation they do not yet need.
Surgery earns its place when the nerve is being compressed enough to cause damage, or when pain has not responded to proper non-surgical treatment over a reasonable period. The clearer signs are worth knowing:
Bring your MRI or CT films and any previous notes. They make the visit far more useful.
Disc prolapse in the neck or lower back causing sciatica, arm pain, or nerve compression.
Narrowing of the spinal canal causing leg pain on walking, heaviness, or numbness.
One vertebra slipping forward over another, with instability and mechanical back pain.
Curvature and complex deformity of the spine, including correction in adults.
Tumours of the spinal cord, its coverings, and the vertebral column.
Fractures and instability after trauma, and follow-up of injuries treated elsewhere.
Where an operation is needed, the aim is to take the pressure off the nerve and keep the spine stable, through the smallest approach that does the job properly. Dr. Rana works largely through minimally invasive and endoscopic techniques, which generally mean less muscle disruption and a quicker return to walking than traditional open surgery.
He pioneered a minimally invasive partial corpectomy technique, and also handles complex deformity correction, which is a different and larger undertaking than routine disc surgery.
If a spine operation has been advised elsewhere and you want to think it over, that is a reasonable and common thing to do. Bring the films and the advice you have been given, and you will get a straight answer about whether surgery is needed, whether it is needed now, and what happens if you wait.
Sometimes the answer is that surgery is the right course. Sometimes it is that you can safely try conservative treatment first. Either way you will hear the reasoning, not just the verdict.
Please note: NeuroMet Wellness is an outpatient clinic. Consultation, review of your scans, and second opinions happen here; if a surgery is advised, it is carried out by Dr. Rana at his hospital, Paras Health, Gurugram.
No. The large majority of disc prolapses settle with medicines, physiotherapy and time. Surgery is considered mainly when there is nerve damage such as weakness, or when proper conservative treatment has failed over a reasonable period.
Yes, please bring the actual films or the CD, not only the report. The images matter more than the typed conclusion, and a decision about surgery cannot be made properly without them.
No. A large part of this clinic is telling people they do not need surgery yet. If an operation is not required, you will be told so plainly.
Consultation and review of scans happen at NeuroMet Wellness. If surgery is advised, it is carried out by Dr. Rana at his hospital, Paras Health, Gurugram.
It depends on the procedure and on the person. Minimally invasive approaches generally allow walking sooner than open surgery, but your own timeline should be discussed at the consultation rather than taken from a website.
Leave your number and our clinic team will call you back to fix a time. Dr. Rana’s clinic at NeuroMet runs 6:00 PM to 8:00 PM by prior appointment.
