by Liz Bonis, WKRC | Click here to see the full interview.

CINCINNATI (WKRC) – Surgery may not be the answer for those suffering from back pain, according to local medical experts. The team at OrthoCincy emphasized that most back pain does not require surgical intervention. Instead, they focus on identifying the source of the pain to provide effective treatment.

Dr. William McClellan, a spine surgeon at OrthoCincy, explained, “Some people will come in and they say I have back pain and leg pain and then I’ll ask where is your pain – and they will point more to their buttock rather than their back.” He noted that imaging can be helpful in determining the cause of such pain, as it often involves the same nerve running from the buttock down the leg.

Physical therapy is often beneficial in these cases, McClellan said, as it can relieve pain originating from a single source. However, he acknowledged that some patients experience both back pain and leg pain from different sources. “Some people will have two different things,” he said. “They will have back pain which is not coming from the pinched nerve, and then they will also have pain down the leg, which is a pinched nerve and they are not necessarily coming from the same spot.”

In such situations, physical therapy may alleviate muscle pain in the back, while surgery might be necessary to address the pinched nerve. “We are not going to cure everything with this surgery,” McClellan said. “We are going to get the pressure off that nerve and help the leg.”

McClellan further explained that surgery is typically reserved for neurological symptoms, such as a pinched nerve or spinal cord. “There’s rare occasions where you operate for strictly just back pain in situations where you have an unstable spine or a spinal deformity,” he said. “But the vast majority of the back pain itself, if it’s just back pain, it’s not a surgical issue.”