It is a difficult process to identify an accurate underlying cause of back pain. It can be crucial in making decisions regarding treatment options. No matter what spinal disc problems a person may be facing, be it a slipped disc, bulging disc, ruptured disc, disc protrusion (protruding disc), or a degenerated disc, it is important for the patient to distinguish whether the pain is radiating within the disc or if the pain is present along the spinal nerve root (nerve pain).
Treating intervertebral disc problems is crucial as they can lead to other spinal disorders if the affected disc is not addressed in a timely manner. They can pinch various nerve roots, and the lumbar spine is the most prone to being affected. As such, lower back problems tend to be quite commen as the sciatic nerve is often pinched and lead to sciatica. A herniated lumbar disc can even obstruct the spinal canal, potentially pushing into the spinal cord.
Some insights will go a long way in choosing the most suitable diagnostic and treatments options for you.
1) Having a Disc Disorder Does Not Necessarily mean Having Pain:
In a lot of cases, many spinal problems, including disc degeneration, can go about unnoticed, sometimes for years, as they may not necessarily display any damaged spinal disc symptoms. This might sound against common sense, but it is factual that a damaged or diseased disc isn’t always accompanied by pain or any other symptoms.
A person with a large disk herniation can have no symptoms at all, while burning, searing pain that radiates down the leg can be experienced by an individual with small disc herniation.
That is why it is important to seek medical advice and pursue a medical diagnosis that will confirm the source of the problem.
An MRI scan may detect some disc problems. People reaching the age of 40 have a high percentage of developing particular disc problems, as disc degeneration is often associated with the aging process and a decline in the health of one’s spinal column.
However, MRI scans often fail to process the amount of pain a patient may experience due to one or more disc problems. The symptoms of the pain are often neglected by the MRI.
This insight is crucial to understand because if a disc problem gets identified on an MRI but is not mainly associated with a patient’s pain, then all the treatment options may be fruitless, and some patients may be unfortunate to go through a spinal surgery to treat their herniated disk just to find out that the severity of the pain remains constant.
2) Diagnostic Testing is not a discovery zone for the Source of the Pain:
The spine specialist will conduct a clinical diagnosis, which consists of taking the patient’s medical history and assessing their symptoms.
A more detailed assessment will then be required by a radiographic test, such as an MRI scan, X-ray or CT scan. This may help confirm the cause of the underlying problem and give rise to more treatment options. This type of assessment can be helpful in planning a surgery too. The radiographic test is not usually used to identify a diagnosis, but it is helpful in confirming or ruling out potentially life-threating disorders.
3) Deciding on a Disc Surgery is a Hard Decision to Make
When deciding on a treatment option for a disc problem that involves surgery, research the type of surgery prior to making a choice. For example, some notable surgery options for disc problems include:
- Microdiscectomy, which is a conservative surgery for a herniated disc to eliminate any radiating pain. This intervention has a high success rate when it comes to relieving pain. The recovery time is also notably short.
- Lumbar
Spinal Fusion is another typical surgery option to treat lumbar degenerative disc disease. The recovery time is often longer and reliable, but the outcomes are also diminished.
In addition to the available types of surgery, there are also sub-types associated with each procedural category. Let’s take an example of multilevel fusion surgery.
This type usually requires a longer healing time. This causes stress because of relays to some other levels of fusion that are non-fused. There are some levels that require extensive care as L4 – S1, this is known as multilevel. They require more care than one-level (L5-S1 or an L4-L5 fusion).
Such considerations will give an in–depth understanding to patients regarding their treatment and surgical options prior to any decision making.
4) There Are Other Treatment Options Available
It is important for patients to go through such insights to understand their condition better and get the most suitable treatment from a number of options available.
Knowing one’s symptoms associated with their spinal disk problem is also an important determining factor in the type of treatment they wish to receive. For example, pay attention if you experience any:
- Pain, numbness, weakness or tingling in your back or neck
- Leg pain, that occurs in addition to pain in the back
- Loss of bladder or bowel control
Apart from surgery, other pain management and treatment options to consider include:
- Lifestyle adjustments, such as losing weight or avoiding lifting heavy objects
- Anti-inflammatory medication, including over-the-counter pain relief medications, as well as steroid injections
- Physical therapy
- Engaging in spinal decompression therapy by using a spinal decompression device, such as the Backrack:
Backrack Helps Treat Spinal Disorders Through Easy Exercises!
Author: Spinal Backrack
