The spine is an essential part of the body because it helps the spinal cord transfer neurological signals. This means that when an area of the spine is in pain, it can bring your entire body to a standstill. As a result, daily activities such as sitting, standing, and even sleeping down can be excruciatingly uncomfortable. But what exactly is spine pain, what are the causes, and how do you manage spinal pain?
This article, therefore, discusses everything you need to know about spine pain and the various pain management treatments for your spine.
What is Spine Pain?
Spine pain can occur when there’s a traumatic injury to a disc in the spine, which causes annular tears to form. The pressure on the disc causes herniation of the nucleus pulposus through the annular tear. This causes inflammatory tissue to develop within the annular tear, causing spine pain.
The inflamed annular tear generates pain signals. When this occurs, additional injuries can cause symptoms to worsen. Inflammation from the annular tear can spread to nearby nerve roots, causing leg pain. Signals travel up nerves to the brain, causing localized spine pain.
The spine consists of three sections:
- Cervical spine (neck).
- Thoracic spine (upper and middle back).
- Lumbar spine (lower back)
The thoracic spine also causes back pain, but it is far less commonly damaged than the lumbar and cervical spine because it is significantly stiffer.
What conditions and disorders affect the spine?
The spine, from the neck to the lower back, are affected by many factors. Vertebrae and discs can degenerate with age, causing pain. Some spine problems include:
- Arthritic conditions, such as ankylosing spondylitis (AS)
- Back strains and sprains
- Bone spurs
- Curvatures of the spine (scoliosis and kyphosis)
- Neuromuscular diseases, such as amyotrophic lateral sclerosis (ALS)
- Nerve injuries, including spinal stenosis, sciatica and pinched nerves
- Osteoporosis (weak bones)
- Spinal cord injuries, including spinal fractures, herniated discs and paralysis
- Spine tumors and cancer
- Infections like meningitis and osteomyelitis
Common Causes of Spine Pain
The spine comprises numerous interrelated bones, nerves, muscles, ligaments, and tendons that protect your spinal cord. Pain in your spine area (upper and middle back) might be caused by a variety of disorders, including:
- Muscle strain: This is caused by bad posture and extended sitting. Heavy lifting or a sudden uncomfortable movement can strain back muscles and spinal ligaments.
- Bulging or ruptured discs: Discs serve as cushions between your spine's bones (vertebrae). The soft substance inside a disc might expand or rupture, putting pressure on a nerve. However, you might have a bulging or ruptured disk without experiencing back discomfort. When you get spine X-rays for another reason, you may accidentally find disc disease.
- Ligament sprains: This occurs when a ligament is stretched or torn. An abrupt twisting action in your spine might cause your ligaments to overstretch beyond their capacity. As a result, this may result in pain in your spine area.
- Arthritis: The lower back can be affected by osteoarthritis. If your bones become weak, the vertebrae in your spine might suffer severe fractures. In certain circumstances, spinal arthritis can cause a narrowing of the area around the spinal cord, a disease known as spinal stenosis.
- Overuse injuries: These are most typically caused by repetitive actions. They produce micro-injuries, which can lead to spinal discomfort. Repetitive lifting, bending, and twisting activities can all lead to thoracic spine overuse problems.
Symptoms of Spine Pain
The most common symptom of spine pain is pain anywhere in the back, sometimes down to the buttocks and legs. Depending on the nerves damaged, some back problems might produce discomfort in other body places.
Fortunately, a lot of spine pain goes away without treatment. The following are other common symptoms of spine pain include:
- Stiffness in the lower back, limiting the range of motion
- Muscle weakness
- Muscle spasms
- Poor posture
- Inability to maintain proper posture owing to stiffness or discomfort
- Muscle spasms that occur during exercise or during rest Pain that lasts for 10-14 days
- Inflammation or swelling on the back
- Significant loss of motor function, such as the capacity to walk on tiptoe or heel.
Back and spine pain might occasionally indicate a significant medical concern. Seek emergency medical attention if you are experiencing spine pain caused by:
- Bowel or bladder problems
- Associated with a fever
- Following a fall, a hit to the back, or other type of injury
Non-surgical treatment options to manage spine pain
Once you have determined the causes and symptoms of your spinal pain, the next stage is spine pain treatments.
1. Physical Therapy:
Patients with spinal pain are frequently recommended for four weeks of physical therapy as an initial conservative (non-surgical) treatment option before contemplating more invasive therapies, such as back surgery. People with low back and spine pain are more likely to heal when they are in good physical shape.
Unless there is a contraindication or the patient requires emergency surgery, most patients are encouraged to try physical therapy before contemplating back surgery.
In general, physical therapy aims to reduce pain, improve function, and educate patients on maintaining a healthy lifestyle to avoid future recurrences. A physical therapy program for back pain generally consists of two parts:
- Passive physical therapy can assist the patient's discomfort to be more bearable.
- Active exercises
2. Mindfulness and Meditation:
Meditation involves observing your thoughts and feelings objectively and without judgement. Meditation, which is frequently coupled with mindfulness practice, fosters an honest appraisal of your viewpoint to know where your mind is at any given time.
Studies have found meditation to be an effective therapy for lower back and spine pain. Developing the concentration and capacity to shift your attention away from the pain and onto something more pleasant will help to alleviate your suffering. Furthermore, you may lessen the occurrence of associated disorders such as worry and stress.
3. Diet:
Certain diets help lessen (or increase) inflammation, a common cause of spine discomfort. As a result, developing an anti-inflammatory diet and using calcium supplements can assist you in maintaining proper nutrition, which is essential for managing spine pain.
4. Injection-based Treatments:
In most cases, therapeutic injections relieve spine or back pain caused by a facet joint, spinal nerve, or intervertebral disc. Pain relief from these injections may occur within a few hours or may take one to two weeks to take effect. These treatment injections are commonly combined with physical therapy to strengthen the surrounding muscles and restore mobility.
The following injections are widely used to treat spine and back pain:
- Epidural injections
- Medial branch blocks
- Facet injection
- Selective nerve root block injections
- Radiofrequency ablation (RFA)
- Sacroiliac (SI) joint injections
5. Lifestyle Modifications:
Making a few lifestyle modifications can also help alleviate spinal discomfort. It may also reduce the likelihood of it happening again in the future. Lifestyle modifications can include:
- Maintaining proper postures
- Maintaining or achieving a healthy weight
- Avoid smoking
- Managing stress
When is Surgery a Good Idea for Back Pain?
Chronic back pain is hardly ever treated surgically. If used, it’s typically a last resort after all non-surgical or conservative therapy has been explored. Chronic back pain is exceedingly difficult to treat surgically since the origin of the pain is usually unknown. The surgeon cannot operate until they understand what is causing the discomfort and what has to be fixed.
When surgery is necessary, it’s to improve the related pain or numbness that travels down one or both arms or legs continuously. The cause of discomfort will decide the appropriate medical therapy, and the surgeon will provide the finest suggestions.
Surgical treatments to manage spine pain
Although surgery is usually the last option for chronic spine and back pain, Deuk Laser Disc Repair is the most effective and least invasive surgical treatment.
Deuk Laser Disc Repair
Deuk Laser Disc Repair is an alternative to dangerous invasive spine surgeries like total disc replacement and spinal fusion. It’s the most advanced laser surgery in the world.
This revolutionary procedure was developed by Dr. Ara Deukmedjian MD, a world-renowned neuro-spine surgeon and a true pioneer in minimally invasive, laser, and endoscopic back and neck pain treatment.
Deuk Laser Disc Repair is a form of endoscopic spine surgery performed in a state-of-the-art surgery center under sedation while the patient relaxes. This procedure does not compromise or weaken the health and integrity of the spine.
If you have a herniated or bulging disc or chronic back or neck pain, submit your MRI for a free review.
Here's how it works:
To get started, Deuk Laser Disc Repair requires a very small incision, less than a quarter inch long. A cylindrical rod called a dilator is inserted in the small opening to gently spread the muscle to create a small passage and guide through which the surgery is performed endoscopically.
The tip of the dilator is advanced into the symptomatic disc through the tear in the annulus where the herniation originates, and a tube called the retractor slides over the dilator and is carefully positioned into the painful disc. The rest of the entire Deuk Laser Disc Repair surgery will occur inside this narrow tube.
To access the spine, an endoscopic camera is inserted into the tubular retractor to allow the surgeon to guide the laser inside each symptomatic disc. This process ensures that bones and surrounding tissues are not damaged, unlike traditional spinal fusions, microdiscectomy”
And artificial disc:
The Holmium YAG laser used in the Deuk Laser Disc Repair is manipulated accurately with millimeter precision under endoscopic visualization to remove only painful inflammatory tissue from the back of the disc. The laser is precisely used to remove damaged disc material that is causing the pain. This process is called debridement of the annular tear and Dr. Ara Deukmedjian MD was the first in the world to use and publish this technique.
Once the laser has removed the inflamed painful part of the annular tear and the herniated nucleus pulposus, the endoscope and tubular retractor are removed, leaving less than one-quarter inch incision in the skin, which can be closed with a single stitch and a band-aid.
The total time for the Deuk Laser Disc Repair surgery is one hour, and the patient is in recovery for about 45 to 60 minutes before being released to go home. Hospitalization is not needed and the risks of hospital-based surgery are avoided.
Also, with the Deuk Laser Disc Repair, there’s no loss of normal movement, and the flexibility of the disc and joint is preserved. With endoscopic Deuk Laser Disc Repair there is no fusion, metal implants or biological material added to the spine. The procedure is all natural allowing your body to heal the herniated or bulging disc itself.
After the surgery, the Deuk Laser Disc Repair patient is back home, enjoying life with a speedy recovery allowing normal activities without pain. Another advantage of Deuk Laser Disc Repair is that no opioids or powerful narcotic painkillers are needed after surgery.
Open spine surgeries like microdiscectomy, laminectomy, artificial disc replacement and fusion all cause so much internal trauma that patients are in severe pain after surgery and must take painkillers for weeks after their surgery but not with Deuk Laser Disc Repair.
Submit your MRI for a free evaluation with our team if you need pain management treatment for your chronic pain.
Here are some testimonials of the Deuk Laser Repair Surgery:
"The surgery only takes about 1 hour. Throughout the entire operation, I did not feel a thing. I woke up and all my pain was gone. I am walking better than I have in years."
"It was such a wonderful professional experience. Dr Deuk is the best in the world. I only have a little pimple-sized incision and absolutely no scars. My full range of motion is back and I can not wait to go back to dancing and all the things I have been so nervous about. I could cry, I am so happy."
Link to patients' testimonials of the Deuk laser repair surgery
Post-Surgery Spine Pain Management
Pain management therapies and care are essential following outpatient spine surgery. Successful outpatient surgery clinics use a multimodal strategy to reduce spine pain and inflammation after surgery.
Some post-surgery spine care is:
1. Limited Activity: You may be up and taking care of your requirements, but avoid any strenuous activity. Put yourself in no danger of falling, and avoid bending or twisting at the waist. When picking up items, bend at the knees (squat). Also, be sure to avoid sitting for more than 45 minutes to an hour at a time: sitting for extended periods may exacerbate your discomfort.
2. Walking is an excellent form of movement to include post-surgery and should be done regularly. Increase your walking distance gradually, and if the weather permits, go outside. After one to two months, you should be able to gradually increase your distance until you can walk one mile.
3. Smoking: You should not smoke following surgery. Smoking slows the healing of the skin and bones as well as reduces the efficacy of your pain medicines.
4. Pain Medication: When you are discharged from the hospital, you will be given a prescription for pain medicine. A mixture of narcotics, muscle relaxants and anti-inflammatory drugs can improve pain management. On the other hand, anti-inflammatory medication is not utilized in any fusion surgery, such as an ACDF or lumbar fusion.
5. Incision Care: After surgery, keep the wound dry for 48 hours. There is no need to use any ointment. Unless there is leakage from the incision, you do not need to keep it covered. Contact your surgeon if the leakage continues for more than two days or if you see redness or swelling around the incision.
6. Cold Therapy: Postoperative discomfort and inflammation can be reduced using ice and cold therapy.
Conclusion: Manage & Treat Your Spine Pain
Back and spine pain can be frustrating while it interferes with daily activities. If you require professional help addressing your spine discomfort, contact Deuk Spine Institute.
At Deuk Spine Institute, we are committed to assisting patients to achieve spinal pain relief. Our services are unique in the world. With a 95% success rate in pain eradication, our pain management therapies are curative rather than palliative. Our physicians are invested in each patient's well-being and have gone to great lengths to provide the best possible outcomes.
We offer unique insight into the intricacies of spinal health, nerves, and solutions such as surgery, and we also provide less-invasive surgery with less damage to surrounding tissue. Contact us at Deuk Spine Institute today. We also offer free consultation on your MRI scan. Visit our site here to start your treatment. Submit your MRI for a free review with our team.
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