Take Control Of Your Back Pain

Back pain is an easily recognizable problem that can bring on a number of sensations. It can present itself in any location along the spine, a stack of 26 bones connected by ligaments, muscles and shock-absorbing discs.

You rely on your spine to be the workhorse of the body - its function is essential for nearly every move you make. Because of this, the spine and its intervertebral discs can be particularly vulnerable to injury and chronic pain.

Back pain is the most common complaints brought to spine surgeons in Chennai. Over six million cases are seen annually, with the majority being in the lower back. It is expensive, too, ranking 3rd after heart disease and cancer in its contribution to medical expenses. Four out of five adults will have at least one bout of back pain sometime during their lives. In fact, back pain is the most common reason for spine doctor office visits, worker's compensation claims and missed work.

On the bright side, you can prevent most back pain. Simple home treatment and proper body mechanics will often heal your back within a few weeks and keep it functional for the long haul. Surgery is only occasionally needed to treat back pain.

Causes

Your lower back bears most of the weight and stress of your body. Back pain most often occurs from strained back muscles and ligaments, from improper or heavy lifting, or after a sudden awkward movement. Sometimes a muscle spasm can cause back pain. Often, there is an accumulation of stress with one particular event resulting in pain. In many cases, there may not be an obvious cause.

The following specific conditions can also cause back pain:

Failed open spine surgery

Following open spine surgery, whether it is a fusion, discectomy or laminectomy patients can experience chronic pain in the back and or the arms or legs. These syndromes are often due to identifiable causes but are termed by surgeons and the medical community to be failed back surgery syndrome (FBSS).

Herniated disc

This is a condition in which part, or all, of the soft, gelatinous central portion of an intervertebral disc is forced through a weakened part of the disc. This results in back pain and leg pain or neck pain and arm pain due to nerve root irritation when the inner portion of the disc (called the nucleus pulposus) presses on a nerve root exiting the spinal cord.

Sciatica

This occurs when there is an inflammation of the sciatic nerve, causing sharp, shooting pain through the buttocks and down the back of the leg.

Spinal stenosis

This condition is a narrowing of the spinal canal due to arthritis bone spurs or herniated discs placing pressure on the spinal cord.

Spondylosis

This condition, also referred to as Degenerative Disc Disease (DDD), is a gradual deterioration of the disc between the vertebrae. As people age, the moisture content in the intervertebral disc in the spine lessen. This causes a narrowing of the normal disc space between vertebrae, often resulting in compression of the nerves running between the vertebrae.

Spondylolisthesis

This condition is a forward slippage of one vertebra in the spine over another. This condition in adults is most commonly due to degeneration (wear and tear) of the discs and ligaments that bind and support the spine. This condition often narrows the space between adjoining vertebrae resulting in pressure on nerve roots.

Repeated bouts of back pain or failed previous "open" spine surgeries can lead to chronic back pain. Chronic pain is often difficult to treat with conservative non-surgical methods.

Treatment

Most back or neck pain gets better with a few weeks of home treatment and careful attention. A regular schedule of pain relievers and hot or cold therapy may be all that you need to improve your pain. A short period of bed rest is okay, but more than a few days actually does more harm than good. If home treatments are not working, your doctor may suggest stronger medications or other therapy.

Therapies

There are many different therapies to treat back or pain, after the cause of the pain is found. Even if the cause is not found, there are therapies that can reduce your pain such as pain medications, exercise, electrical stimulation or physical therapy.

Surgical and other procedures

The minority of people with back or neck pain require surgery. Surgery is usually reserved for pain caused by a herniated discs, spinal stenosis or degenerative disc disease. If you have unrelenting pain or progressive muscle weakness caused by nerve compression, you may benefit from surgery.

Most spine surgery procedures are often referred to as "open" procedures. "Open" procedures require larger incisions, muscle stripping, more anesthesia, operating time, hospitalization and, a lengthier recuperative time. Minimally-invasive advanced endoscopic surgical techniques utilize a portal made by a tiny incision in the skin through which small, specialized instruments are inserted. For example, the endoscope allows the surgeon to work with a highly magnified view of the surgical passageway.

Treatments For Lower Back Pain

If you are feeling persistent pain in your lower back, the first thing you want to do is visit your doctor in order to get a diagnosis for the problem. After your diagnosis has been completed you will then want to look over the different types of treatments available for back pain.

Most problems involving back pain can be treated in a moderate way, while certain conditions may require you to have surgery. Most patients suffering from back pain will begin feeling relief two weeks after beginning treatment.

Some of the methods used in correcting back pain are very basic. You may only be required to rest or exercise while undergoing physical therapy. More advanced treatments may include acupuncture or chiropractic help. Your doctor will be able to give you a list of treatments for different types of back pain.

Despite this, doing your own research will allow you to better understand the types of treatments available. Different methods of correcting back pain have both advantages and disadvantages. The most important factor in treating your back pain is to be in control of your treatments.

When you have pain in your back, you should be able to get pain relief. Many doctors prescribe medications to their patients in order to reduce pain. Pills taken orally such as aspirin and other medication which don't require prescriptions are often used.

If this isn't strong enough, neurosurgeon in Chennai will often begin prescribing opioids. These usually add to the medicine you're already taking, and are usually ingested in the form of codeines. Sometimes stronger opioids such as morphine are used. Sometimes patients may experience undesirable side effects when taking medications for back pain.

Patients with severe back pain may also need to undergo physical therapy. Some forms of physical therapy are more passive thant others. Getting back massages and applying heat are cold objects to the back generally only work the first few weeks after suffering a back injury. After this patients begin doing active forms of physical therapy such as correcting their posture and other forms of exercise.

Another important treatment for back pain is psychological therapy. Back pain often causes large amounts of stress due to the fact people suffering aren't able conduct everyday activities. Some people may not be able to work and be employed in the types of jobs they enjoy doing. Psychologists will often counsel patients in order to help them cope with and manage the stress they have.

How Advantageous Is Laser Spine Surgery?

Well, as a matter of fact, laser spine surgery can often turn out to be pretty advantageous. Nevertheless, though, in order to have a clearer and better understanding of how laser spine surgery can be so advantageous, it is important to take into consideration quite a few facts with regards to the this surgery.

To get things going, it is important to keep in mind that people may happen to suffer from pain striking their back or spine at times. This can often be caused by more than just a single factor. Fortunately, though, there are indeed couples of ways people can make use of in order to help them get rid of the back or spine ache they suffer from. This ache is very terrible and it can strike either people's neck, lower back or their legs. Check below what a spine surgeon in Chennai has to say about how advantageous is laser spine surgery.

Nonetheless, one quite unfortunate fact is perhaps that in order to get over spine ache, people will often be required to undergo a surgery. Everybody knows that a surgery is often painful and it will leave permanent scars onto people's body. With that being said, there are today more and more people that are becoming more interested in undergoing a laser spine surgery compared to the more conventional surgery treatments.

Thanks to the laser spine surgery, the patients will usually have better chances of going home from the hospital at an earlier time. This way, they will not have to pay too much amount of their hard earned money to the hospital but save it instead.

In most cases, though, a laser spine surgery will begin by making some incision to be able to get into the regions where pain is felt. This surgery is particularly effective in making the opening most of the time.

There are 2 main kinds of laser spine surgery that people usually know. The first kind of laser spine surgery is the discectomy. It is a pretty open treatment procedure and thus gives quite a great pain to the patients undergoing it. The second one is the microdiscectomy. The latter is a whole lot less painful compared to the former. However, both of the procedures are meant to help those spine ache patients out there get over their illness.

With a laser spine surgery, it is not surprising to see doctors making attempts to put a laser fiber needle into the herniated or ruptured disc of the patients. This needle will usually be put into the innermost part of the affected disc. The reason for this is to make some spaces so as to enable the laminotomy to be performed to complete the laser surgery.

Thanks to the help of a laser spine surgery, patients will not have to worry too much any longer about permanent scars usually caused by surgical cuts. Better yet, they will recover without too much pain.