Back pain can be cervical (neck pain), thoracic (middle back pain), lumbar (lower back pain) or tailbone or sacral (coccydynia). Lumbar back pain is the most common type.

Lumbar back pain symptoms include shooting or stabbing pain, pain that radiates down the leg, muscle aches, pain that worsens when you walk, lift something, bend or stand and/or improves when you recline.

Lumbar back surgery may be used to treat a slipped disc and sciatica, which occurs when a spinal disc presses down on a nerve; spinal stenosis, a narrowing of a section of the spinal column that puts pressure on nerves and spinal injuries including a fracture.

If you and your orthopedic surgeon decide that lumbar decompression surgery is right for you, he or she will perform one or more of these procedures: discectomy to remove part of a damaged disc to relieve pressure on a nerve; laminectomy to remove bone from one of your vertebrae to relieve pressure on a nerve and/or spinal fusion to join together two or more vertebrae with a section of bone to strengthen the spine.

Following your lumbar spine surgery, you’ll leave the hospital within one to four days. You’ll start walking in the hospital, and will be able to return to work after four to six weeks with some restrictions.