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What to know before spinal surgery

Here are answers to what people ask once the decision about surgery has been made: what the anaesthesia will be, how many days in hospital, when you can drive again and whether surgery at seventy is safe. It is exactly these small things that keep people tense the longest, although the answers are simple.

Years of teaching at Zaporizhzhia medical university and daily practice have taught me to explain complex things in plain words. I wrote and signed every article myself. Six texts run in order - from what to bring to a first visit, to when you can get back behind the wheel and into the gym.

MRI or CT: two imaging machines, isometric view

Which is better for back pain - an MRI or a CT of the spine

How an MRI differs from a CT, which part to scan, whether your images are out of date and why a disc is needed rather than a report. From Zaporizhzhia. Read Preparing for surgery: a folder of documents, scans, a bag

Preparing for spinal surgery - tests and what to bring with you

Which tests are needed, which medicines are stopped in advance, what to bring with you and how the day before surgery goes. From the neurosurgeon. Read Three levels of anaesthesia: stylised zones marked by light

What anaesthesia is used for spinal surgery

General, spinal or local - what the choice depends on, what the anaesthetist checks, whether anaesthesia is dangerous with heart disease or in old age. Read Duration of the operation and the stay: a stylised clock and calendar

How long spinal surgery takes and how many days in hospital

How long the operation itself runs, how the admission day goes, how many nights on the ward after a microdiscectomy, a fusion or a percutaneous procedure. Read Recovery: the path from a hospital bed back to ordinary life

How long recovery after spinal surgery takes

When to get up, drive, go back to work and to the gym, how long to wear a brace and which loads are off limits in the first weeks after surgery. Read Risks of surgery: a stylised diagram of the assessment

Is spinal surgery dangerous at 70?

What really sets the risk - not age, but the heart, the vessels, the lungs and blood clotting. When surgery is justified and when it is declined. Read

Can't find your answer?

A question about your particular case is best asked by voice: two minutes on the phone tell you more than any article. If I can't pick up, I call back myself.

If you already know the name of the procedure, see its page in the Operations section: indications, how the procedure goes and recovery times.

If you do not yet know what you have, start with the Treatment section: it is organised around the complaint, not the name of an operation.

Mon-Fri 08:30-15:00. On operating days I cannot answer the phone: message the same number instead.
+380 67 901 37 01

All procedures and operations

The full list of what I perform. Each page covers who it suits, how it goes and how long recovery takes.

Microdiscectomy Epidural block Radiofrequency ablation Radiofrequency denervation Spinal fusion Vertebroplasty Minimally invasive surgery Nucleoplasty Canal decompression