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If there are two or three different ways of doing a surgery on my back, and the doctors know that one is better than the other, why would a doctor choose the one with a lower success rate over the other?

Many times, there is more than one way to perform a certain procedure. While some may have a higher complication rate or a lower success rate, usually the different procedures are chosen for a variety of reasons.

While it may seem that both do the same thing, there may be issues with the patient and the problem that call for one approach over the other. Or, the surgeon may be more experienced with one procedure over the other.

If a patient is concerned about a surgeon's approach, it's best to speak with the surgeon in order to understand the reasoning behind the choice.

Reference: 

Rikke Soegaard, MPH, et al. Circumferential Fusion is Dominant Over Posterolateral Fusion in a Long-term Perspective. In SPINE. Vol. 32. No. 22. Pp. 2405-2414.

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