The importance of Rehab after lower back surgery

Dear Ask The Doctor: After lower back surgery, will I walk better when my staples are removed?

Dear Philip: The issue here is not the staples, but the Rehab after the spine surgery. Spine surgery is a major undertaking, and rehabilitation is an important part of helping to get the most possible benefit from the surgery. Rehabilitation (physical therapy, directed exercises) can help you to recover from spine surgery as quickly and completely as possible, and of course walk better and resume your daily living activities in the best way possible.It can be thought of as alignment and balance for your body. The physical therapist is trained to help you to manage pain following back surgery. Controlling pain is an important first step in allowing you to regain strength. Therapists focus on muscle facilitation with areas where the muscles may need special retraining to gain strength and provide stability following the back surgery, for example: the muscles in the incision area, the muscles that may have been weakened before and the smal muscles that work around each vertebrae, those which help to stabilize the spine. Most patients often wonder if and when they can return to certain activities after spine surgery. A lot of that depends on how you respond to exercise and can prepare the muscles to protect the spine during the activity. The patient/ therapist team works well in this situation, as the therapist has the opportunity to observe your  movement and force tolerance over time. The success in recovery from spine surgery depends on your willingness to work hard at home as well as with the therapist. Often, the surgery will take you a great deal of the way on the road to recovery, and then the importance to work with the therapist as a team, together, to make the recovery the best possible.