Back surgery (spinal surgery) at Spire Bushey Hospital

At Spire Bushey, our orthopaedic (bone and muscle) consultants and neurosurgeons have wide experience in performing back surgery in our clean and contemporary facilities. They’ll offer you a treatment and recovery plan that’s personalised to you, to relieve your symptoms and help you get back to your everyday activities. Our dedicated nurses and physiotherapists will provide you with expert aftercare to help you get the most from your operation.

At Spire Bushey, we offer trusted and clinically proven surgical techniques for a variety of conditions. Your consultant will be able to recommend which type of surgery is best for you. This may include one or more of the following:

• Discectomy – used to treat a slipped disc by removing the part of the disc pressing on the nerve
• Laminectomy – used to relieve pressure on the spinal cord or nerves by removing part of the vertebra that’s pressing on them
• Spinal fusion – used to reconstruct your back when there’s instability or deformity

We’re able to offer surgical techniques and innovations that have been designed to improve outcomes. These include:

• Minimally invasive fusion surgery, which uses smaller incisions than traditional techniques, with less muscle damage resulting in faster recovery
• Interspinous distraction, which is occasionally used for lumbar spinal stenosis, where a device is implanted between two vertebrae to relieve a trapped or compressed nerve
• Synthetic bone substitutes are available which means your consultant doesn’t need to remove bone from elsewhere in your body to fuse your vertebrae

Our facilities offer five operating theatres, three with laminar flow which regulates air flow to reduce the risk of infection.

Getting here

Spire Bushey Hospital and Spire Bushey Diagnostic Centre are situated within easy access to the M1/M25 motorways, underground and overground train stations. We have free parking on both sites for you and your visitors.

Your consultations                 

Your initial consultation will take place at Spire Bushey Diagnostic Centre which offers the latest facilities and diagnostics. All of our rooms are accessible, making things easier if you have difficulty walking.

During your consultations, we’ll:

• Ask about your medical history
• Say whether you need an X-ray, and/or an MRI or CT scan so your consultant can examine your back in more detail if you haven’t been diagnosed yet
• Tell you about the particular surgical method your consultant recommends and what it'll involve
• Explain about the general anaesthetic and how it may affect you
• Give you a chance to ask any questions you have about your surgery

Once you’ve decided to go ahead with back surgery, your consultant and your physiotherapist will explain your recovery plan.

When you come in for your operation, you’ll be with us for one to four days. You’ll stay in one of our large, bright, private en-suite rooms, which has a locked space for your things and entertainment to keep you occupied as you start your recovery.

Here’s what will happen on the day of your back surgery:

• You’ll meet your surgery team and anaesthetist
• Your anaesthetist will administer the general anaesthetic, which will send you to sleep for the operation
• Once it’s taken effect, your surgeon will begin the procedure

After surgery, you can begin your recovery in your own private room.

It’s normal to feel some pain or discomfort after back surgery, so to make your recovery easier, you’ll be given:

• Medications to help you manage pain, prevent infection and reduce the risk of clotting
• Sessions with one of our physiotherapists, who'll give you an exercise plan to help you get active again, plus a guide to how long your recovery will take

Although everybody’s different and you should always follow your consultant’s advice, here’s a typical recovery timeline for back surgery: