Back pain is a common complaint. Four out of five people experience low back pain at least once during their lives. It's one of the most common reasons people go to the doctor or miss work.
Simple home treatment , some lifestyle modifications to have proper body mechanics and simple exercises will often heal your back within a few weeks and keep it functional for the long time. Contact your physician immediately when you have constant unrelieved pain, pain going in legs specially below knee, causing weakness & numbness, or loss of bowel / bladder control, follows fall or trauma, associated with abdominal pain or fever or associated with unexpected weight loss.
The inter-vertebral discs are protective cushion-like shock-absorbing pads between the two bones of the spine called vertebrae. The hard, tough outer layer called the annulus surrounds a mushy, moist center termed the nucleus. When a disc herniates or ruptures, the soft nucleus spurts out through a tear in the annulus, and can compress a nerve root and cause pain either around the damaged disc or anywhere along the area controlled by that nerve.
The nature of the pain is frequently electric shock-like pain or burning pain. This pain may be associated with some numbness, tingling sensations and sometime some muscle weakness. Sciatica is a frequently used term both by doctors and by patients. It is a symptom and not a disease. Sciatica is defined as any pain that is starting in the low back and is going towards the legs. Slipped disc is one of the most common cause of sciatica.
The joints in the spine are called Facet Joints. There is one joint on each side (right and left). Facet joints are hinge–like and link vertebrae together. They are located in posterior half of spine.Facet joints are synovial joints. These joints allow flexion (bend forward), extension (bend backward), and twisting motion. Certain types of movement are restricted. These joints interlock with the adjacent vertebrae and provide stability to the spine. Amongst the common causes for your back pain may be facet joint or herniated intervertebral disc (slipped disc).Other Causes may be
For back pain sufferers, interventional pain management techniques can be particularly useful. There is quick recovery, less hospital stay, more economical, very little chance of side effects, and no chance of failed back surgery syndrome- the most fearsome complication of open surgery. In addition to a thorough medical history and physical examination, interventional pain management physicians have a wide array of treatments that can be used including the following:
Epidural injections (in all areas of the spine): the use of anesthetic and steroid medications injected into the epidural space to relieve pain or diagnose a specific condition.
Selective Nerve root blocks: injections done to determine if a specific spinal nerve root is the source of pain. Blocks also can be used to reduce inflammation and pain.
Medial Branch block or Facet joint injections: an injection used to determine if the facet joints are the source of pain. These injections can also provide pain relief.
Provocative Discography: is done to mimic the pain or to see the disc structural integrity and to determine if disc are the source of a patient's pain. In this dye is injected into a disc and patient is examined while injecting dye as well examined using x-ray or CT Scan.
Pulsed Radiofrequency Neurotomy (PRFN): a minimally invasive procedure that disables spinal nerves and prevents them from transmitting pain signals to the brain.
Rhizotomy: a procedure in which pain signals are "turned off" through the use of heated electrodes that are applied to specific nerves that carry pain signals to the brain.
Spinal cord stimulation: the use of electrical impulses that are used to block pain from being perceived in the brain.
Intrathecal pumps: a surgically implanted pump that delivers pain medications to the precise location in the spine where the pain is located.
Percutaneous Discectomy/Nucleoplasty: a procedure in which tissue is removed from the disc in order to decompress and relieve pressure.
Surgery for spine pain is the last resort therapy and can be avoided in majority of patients with interventional pain procedures.
Interventional pain management physicians often include other treatments such as physical therapy, occupational therapy, and lifestyle modification (such as exercise, diet, and smoking cessation) to further enhance these procedures.
Back pain (also known as dorsalgia) is pain felt in the back that usually originates from themuscles,nerves,bones, joints or other structures in the spine.
Nonspecific back pain, back pain with radiculopathy or spinal stenosis, and back pain associated with another specific cause (such as infection or cancer).
Non specific pain indicates that the cause is not known precisely] but is believed to be due from the soft tissues such as muscles, fascia, and ligaments.
Back pain is classified according to etiology in mechanical or nonspecific back pain and secondary back pain. Approximately 98% of back pain patients are diagnosed with nonspecific acute back pain which has no serious underlying pathology. However, secondary back pain which is caused by an underlying condition accounts for nearly 2% of the cases. Underlying pathology in these cases may include metastatic cancer, spinal osteomyelitis and epidural abscess which account for 1% of the patients. Also, herniated disc is the most common neurologic impairment which is associated with this condition, from which 95% of disc herniations occur at the lowest two lumbar intervertebral levels
About 50% of women experience low back pain during pregnancy. Back pain in pregnancy may be severe enough to cause significant pain and disability and pre-dispose patients to back pain in a following pregnancy