Many patients are surprised that spinal fusion surgeries are done as an outpatient. Most of the time patients will remark that insurance companies are forcing surgeons to do this. Sure, insurance companies are businesses and want to save money on the high cost of spine surgery, but the force behind same-day spinal fusions has been patients. Most patients would rather recover in the comfort of their own homes rather than a noisy, sleepless hospital. This has pushed surgeons to develop methods to make same-day spine surgery a reality. This drive toward outpatient surgery was accelerated during COVID, when nobody wanted to be in a hospital.
What Makes Outpatient Spine Surgery Possible
Surgical techniques have improved for decompressing nerves and placing hardware so that spine fusion is much less invasive. Anesthesia has also gotten on-board to improve the pain control before and after surgery. The other thing that has improved is our thinking about mobility. It is not a surprise that spinal fusion surgery is done to return the patient back to their normal activities. What has surprised patients is that return to activity starts on the same day as surgery. We have the physical therapist work with the spine fusion patient as soon as the anesthesia effects have worn off. This allows the physical therapist to guide the patient in proper body mechanics and gives the patient confidence that they can get up and walk without fear of messing up the surgery.
What are the Benefits of Same-Day Spine Surgery PT
A recent study from Rutgers Medical School (May 2026, Journal of Neurosurgery) evaluated patients’ responses to same-day PT after spine fusion. They observed 586 fusion patients and had 84 of them participate in surgical day PT. They found a significant decrease in the patients stay in the hospital and an increased likelihood of those patients going home rather than a nursing home in those patients with the early PT. They also found that the early mobilization did not cause any increase in complications, ER visits, readmissions or reoperations.
Request a Consult for Same-Day Spine Surgery in Newport News, VA
Remember that the goal of the surgery is returning to your normal activity. The surgical techniques are designed for those activities and the journey to normality should start as quickly as possible.
Orthopaedic & Spine Center is a leader in developing techniques that allow most lumbar and cervical spine fusion surgeries to be done in an outpatient setting, and allow our patients to recover and return to their normal activities more quickly than ever before. To schedule a consultation with our board-certified spine specialistis in Newport News, VA, call 757-596-1900 or use our online scheduling tool to request an appointment.