I had 2 laminectomies L5 and S1 surgeries now 2 years later i have small joint pain in both hands and pain in the bottom of both feet i still have radiating pain down my buttocks?

Answer 1

The pain in your hands is likely unrelated to the pain in your feet and back, unless it's arthritis and it's spread that far, which is not uncommon. Having had 3 multi-level fusions myself, I have a lot of Arthritis in my spine, but also throughout my hands from other injuries and problems.

The nerves in your hands are controlled from the cervical spine, and if you've got a degenerative spinal condition, you might also be having disk problems in you neck around the C5/6/7 vertebrae.

You can't also discount the possibility that the L4/5 disk is going bad. One of the problems with any fusion is that it puts stress on the vertebrae/disk directly above the fusion site (fulcrum effect), and over time it'll start manifesting itself. That's how I wound up with a 3rd fusion at L3/4 7 years after my fusion at L4/S1.

While it's possible that you're just dealing with the effects of scar tissue buildup around the laminectomy area, if it's pressing on the nerve bad enough you should get a CT/Myelogram or MRI performed to be sure and rule out a hardware problem.

As far as the radiating leg pain, don't rule out a bad surgical procedure either; of the 3 laminectomies I've had, the first 2 were done improperly. At the time of course, I didn't know or even suspect it, given that there sure wasn't anything revealed to me by my surgeon or the radiology "pros" who had read my pictures.

I spent 7 years with extreme pain after that second fusion, and chalked it up to the dangers of back surgery. It wasn't until I went in for my 3rd (using a different surgeon this time) that I was informed my first 2 surgeries were so badly performed, the surgeon asked me if I had any litigation pending against my former surgeon.

As it turned out. 2 of the pedicle screws from that second operation were screwed in too far, into tissue and 2 leg nerves (one for each side) which was confirmed during surgery by an EMG. I was told that my legs reacted to the electrical stimulus to the screws so badly it made the surgery team jump.

In addition, I have one screw in my neck that is screwed into a disk, with only the last 2 or 3 threads actually into bone. The bone growth is now too advanced to remove it, unless it becomes paralyzing or life-threatening.

Even though they removed my old hardware (I still have some between L3/4 and of course in my neck), the nerve damage was done. Even though the pain is less. as the scar tissue builds up again, it's pressing on the nerve to the point where it's getting harder to walk again.

My point is, don't just assume the lower spinal surgery was done properly, and sure as hell don't take your surgeon's word for it. Granted, any spinal surgery is high risk, but there's a big difference between high risk and plain incompetence. The only way you can really determine the problem is to find another Neurosurgeon from a good school to check you out. You might also want to check and see if there's any malpractice litigation pending against your old surgeon - you never know.

If your insurance will allow it, try to find another surgeon that's outside of your current medical system (e.g., local hospital area). If there's a problem with your insurance, just tell them that you don't feel comfortable with that system's doctors or hospital; usually they'll understand. The closest hospital to me has tried and come very close to killing me with hospital mistakes, so any time my insurance company asks why I want to go to another hospital, I just bring that up and they don't argue about it.