Understanding Your Surgical Options for Nerve Pain

Your nerves are tiny messengers that play a big role in your health and well-being. By transmitting signals, they allow your brain to communicate with your body. Without nerves, you wouldn’t be able to feel sensations, move around, or think normally.

Nerve pain, also known as neuropathic pain, stems from nervous system damage or malfunction. And it can affect all of the important roles your nerves play.

While conservative nerve pain treatments often work well, some people benefit the most from surgery.

Dr. Nicholas Perenich and his team at Spine Institute of Florida in Dade City and Spring Hill provides comprehensive and customized nerve pain treatment to bring you lasting relief.

Here’s a closer look at nerve pain, including effective surgical options.

Nerve pain causes

Anything that irritates or compresses one or more nerves can result in nerve pain.

Conditions that commonly fuel nerve pain include:

Automobile or athletic spine injuries
Arthritis
Degenerative disc disease (DDD)
Herniated discs
Spinal stenosis
Spondylolisthesis
Vertebral compression fractures

Diabetes, certain infections, such as shingles, and autoimmune diseases can also contribute by damaging certain nerves. You can also develop phantom nerve pain after a limb amputation.

Nerve pain symptoms

Nerve pain can range from mild to severe and occur sporadically or stay fairly persistent. While it affects people differently, nerve pain can feel like a burning, electric shocklike, or shooting pain. You may also experience numbness or tingling.

Nerve pain can cause difficulty sleeping and extreme sensitivity to cold or hot stimuli. Increased sensitivity to pain is also common.

Nerve pain surgeries

When conservative treatments, like oral medication, nerve blocks, and epidural injections, fail to alleviate your symptoms, our team may recommend spine surgery.

Your surgical options for nerve pain may include:

Direct nerve repair, which reconnects severed ends of a damaged nerve using sutures, special glue, or stitches
Nerve grafting, which bridges the gap between ends of a damaged nerve with nerve tissue from elsewhere
Nerve transfer, which reroutes a damaged nerve to connect with a healthy one
Neurolosys, which removes or releases scar tissue that’s compressing a nerve
Neuromodulation, which uses an implanted device to block pain signals
Targeted muscle reinnervation (TMR), which reroutes nerves to relieve pain from thickened nerves or amputation

Your ideal nerve pain surgery will depend on several factors, such as the type and severity of your symptoms and your overall health. While our team uses minimally invasive techniques whenever possible, we’re also highly experienced in complex procedures.

Early intervention can go a long way toward preventing nerve pain complications. To get started with personalized support, call Spine Institute of Florida or schedule an appointment through our website today.