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Spine Surgeon on This Type of Back Pain: ‘Surgery Could Make That Worse’

July 21, 2020

Dr. Khalid Abbed, Co-Physician-in-Chief of the Hartford HealthCare Ayer Neuroscience Institute, talks about common back pain and when surgery may not be your best option:

What’s ailing our aching backs?
The vast majority of low back pain is actually muscular. If you fall into that category, you probably do not need back surgery, according to Dr. Abbed. “Back surgery can actually make that worse. Unfortunately, I think a lot of people are getting surgery for these kind of problems when they probably would have a chance of getting better when conservative measures have been optimized. That’s really what we’re doing here. We are turning the treatment paradigm of care on its head and we are focusing on the prevention.

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Let’s look at your lifestyle.
Dr. Abbed explains that weight, exercise, and even some of the mundane lifestyle habits we have adopted could be the culprit of our pain.  “The spine holds everything up. If I’m holding a very heavy object, eventually I’ll experience shoulder pain. If you have a weak core, all of those forces go straight to your spine.”

Getting back on track.
It’s the things most of us have heard before, and Dr. Abbed will say it again: “Healthy eating and exercise. I can’t say it enough. These things are very important. If we’re not doing those, you are going to have back pain. Your quality of life is not going to be as good as it could have been.”

Listen to Dr. Abbed in the latest More Life podcast:

Is surgery the last option?
Yes, according to Dr. Abbed: “That being said, there are some conditions that will worsen if you delay surgery. That’s why it’s important to have the highest quality providers involved in your care. Not just surgeons. It could be the podiatrist, a physical therapist, and pain management doctors, coming up with a comprehensive plan tailored to you.”

Coming Soon: The Spine Wellness Center in Westport.
“My vision is to make this the standard of care and to really change healthcare for spinal disorders across the nation,” says Dr. Abbed. “We’re going to show that healthcare systems really should invest on what’s best for patients. This really has been a labor of love and this is the first time in my career that I’ve had the opportunity to draw something out to say ‘this is exactly what people need.’”

Mind, Body and Soul
The spine wellness center, slated to open in the fall of 2020, will be truly integrative. They will provide courses with nutritionists and dieticians for cooking classes, and personal trainers to provide life-long training skills. “We’re also going to have things for the mind – meditation, reiki, yoga, tai chi, and more to help participants manage stress,” says Dr. Abbed. “This is rare for a spine center. We’re going to get you mentally, physically and spiritually ready for any procedure that I might need to do. And for a lot of patients, if we do all that, they might not even need that surgery in the end.”

Learn what common conditions might be causing your back pain. Dr. Abbed talks about the importance of understanding your:

  • Body.
  • Nutrition.
  • Stress and its effect on your back.
  • Sleep.

Learn more about Dr. Abbed and the Spine Wellness Center at St. Vincent’s Medical Center in Bridgeport by clicking here.

Listen and subscribe to Hartford HealthCare’s More Life series on Apple Podcasts by clicking here.

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