After diagnosis, depending on your condition, your doctor might prescribe a medical surgery. For most people, surgeries often feel like playing a game of Russian Roulette. While surgeries have improved with commendable results due to medical advancement, going into a theater room doesn’t always guarantee a successful procedure. This is something that gives a lot of surgery patients cold feet when their doctor prescribes a surgical procedure for their conditions.
In case you are one of those people, you have something to smile about. Based on a report done by aesthetics treatment providers and doctors in 2017, non-surgical procedures outdid surgical treatments by an impressive rate of 8:1. Also, what’s not commonly said is that surgeries are quite expensive, and other alternatives are available for many conditions. Not to discount surgery, patients with conditions such as disc herniations, arthritis, rotator cuff tears are all responsive to non-surgical interventions.
Alternative to Surgery Treatment
Patient surgery procedures start with an evaluation and discussions about treatment options. Depending on the severity of the condition, the doctor will help patients determine physical therapy and medication. While some of these treatments still need extensive medical research and may or may not offer lasting relief.
Physical Therapy
While you might not know this, physical therapy is comparable to medical surgery, especially when it comes to pain relief and function in the long-term. Physical therapy is also much cheaper, with minimal recovery time compared to surgery.
Medication
When a patient is experiencing pain or inflammation, one of the first medical procedures by any physician is to offer medication. It is essential to remember that medicine is often provided as a quick and relatively cheap option to relieve pain. When issuing a prescription, there needs to be a plan of transition away from using medication. In case a patient stops using the medicine and the pain comes back, the condition has not been fixed.
Injections
A physician can issue a steroid to reduce inflammation or pain in a patient making injections a common substitute to surgeries. Injections are a minimally invasive technique used to offer pain relief, especially to patients who have issues with their joints or tendons. Successful muscle pain relief is achievable using specific injection protocols that are much cheaper and offer quicker recovery time.
Platelet Rich Plasma
The blood is composed of white and red cells, as well as platelets. Platelets are essential in healing since it assists in blood clotting. They also have a significant number of proteins known as growth factors. These are crucial when it comes to recovery. Using Platelet Rich Plasma (PRP) is fast becoming popular though still in experimental phase treatment to surgery.
Stem Cell Treatment
Stem cell treatment is perhaps the most popular alternative to surgery, gaining traction in the medical field when treating chronic pain. Stem cells are a unique type of young cell that renews and multiplies, repairing, and replacing tissues once introduced into the body. This alternative to surgery is quite impressive since stem cells can become whatever cells they need to replace or repair older cells.
Are these treatments right for your condition
According to a reputable Portland orthopedic surgeon, while alternatives to surgery offer a cheaper and, in some cases, quicker recovery time, depending on the patient’s condition, they might not be appropriate. It is vital to consider what prescription your doctor offers since they are in the right position to help you get better.
