Complications from spinal surgery are rare, but you should be aware of some risks:

Some pain after surgery should be expected, but sometimes surgery doesn’t relieve all of your preoperative pain and, in rare cases, can make it worse. Discuss your expectations for pain relief with your surgeon.

After a spinal fusion, neighboring parts of the spine can take on more stress. Over time, this can lead to pain in the damaged part of the spine. This transitional syndrome can happen between a healthy area of the spine and the area that has been fused.

In a spinal fusion, the fused vertebrae may not heal together properly. It results in continued pain and a condition called pseudoarthrosis. Follow-up surgery may be required.