Shortness of breath after a simple microdiscectomy to me represents a pulmonary embolism until proven otherwise. Any surgery can cause a deep vein thrombosis (DVT). If the DVT “breaks off”, the clot commonly “gets caught” in the lungs leading to shortness of breath. Another cause could be fluid overload. If the anesthesiologist infuses lots of fluid during surgery in a patient with poor functioning kidneys, this can cause fluid overload, pulmonary edema and shortness of breath.
Any pulmonologist should be able to diagnose these disorders so I have to assume that they have been ruled out.
I cannot comment on stem cell implants in the base of the spine for COPD. This treatment does not make sense to me.
Dr. Corenman