Hi,

I had a minimally-invasive laminectomy at L4 in 2010, and like you it immediately took care of leg pain in both legs, but during recovery from that I noticed that I had numbness in both feet, both ankles, and in both legs below the knee.

My neurosurgeon originally told me in appointments after that surgery, and after a 2nd re-exploration surgery, that it was "motor nerves", and might heal after 18 months, but I subsequently developed intermittent burning in the same areas, and the numbness never went away.

I've been posting in one of the other forums here for peripheral neuropathy:

http://neurotalk.psychcentral.com/thread177574.html

As mentioned in that other thread, I've seen a bunch of other doctors for the numbness and burning, including a neurologist earlier this year, who diagnosed "idiopathic" (i.e., unknown cause) peripheral neuropathy, but so far, still have the same problems. Since then, I've seen several other orthopedic surgeons, who think that the L4 laminectomy caused scar tissue, and have recommended full laminectomies at L4 and L4 and a fusion, which I'm kind of dis-inclined to do yet.

I have an appointment with a new physiatrist tomorrow, to see what he says, and to try to get a new EMG test.

At this point, I'm not sure what's causing this for me, i.e., is it because of the earlier back surgeries, or some remaining spinal problem(s), or is it because of something else?

FYI, I think that my numbness/burning gets worst when I sit or lie down.

Later,
Jim