Back Pain

Out of 10 every 8 people in the world has been suffered from severe attack of back pain during their life time. Back pain is a symptoms rather than disease. Doctor finds out the cause of back pain and treats accordingly. Back pain is pain felt in the back that usually originates from the muscles, nerves, bones, joints or other structures in the spine.

WHAT ARE CAUSES OF BACK PAIN ?

There are many causes of back pain. Long standing degeneration (wearing away) of the vertebrae and the intervertebral disc is the primary cause behind this disorder.

• Advancing age
• Joint Problem  Lumbar Facet Arthropathy
• Ligament or muscle injury
• Disc problem slipped disc or tear in disc
• Repetitive back injury
• Repetitive stress Poor Muscle tone

Occupational trauma lifting heavy loads on head, gymnastics, working on the computer for long hours.

HOW BACK PAIN IS DIAGNOSED ?

Getting an accurate diagnosis of the cause of back pain is critical, because different diagnoses will require very different treatment approaches. And the sooner an accurate back pain diagnosis is made, the sooner the patient can find an appropriate treatment for pain relief and to improve his or her ability to enjoy everyday activities.

The most common diagnostic tests include

• X-rays
• MRI scans
• Blood Test
• TREATMENT BACK PAIN DRUG THERAPIES

Painkillers are often helpful. Pain killer as well as anti-inflammatory medicine can help you to move your back for exercise. As well as it help to reduce an inflammation in back. Pain killer has a good role in early stages back pain.

In advance stages pain killers are not much useful. Also in long run pain killers can have an adverse effect on Kidney, liver and other major organs. So you should not take pain killers by your own, consult your doctor for this.

EXERCISE AND PHYSIOTHERAPY

Some back exercises are very helpful in early stage of back pain and to maintain a muscle strength and tone for long term.

INTERVENTIONS

SPINAL BLOCK / INJECTIONS

As science advances treatment of back pain is becoming less and less invasive. Now a days for back pain treatment minimally invasive treatments are widely available. Back pain treatment in India is keeping pace with world. All advance and minimally back pain treatment also available in India.

If exercise and medicine are not working then your doctor might suggest you spinal blocks / injection. There are number of procedure for back pain. Your doctor will see all reports and then suggest you best treatment options for you. Interventions are small procedure done with a tiny needles to block pain generators or pain pathways.

All these blocks are very useful and make patient life more pain free. Mostly all back pain procedure are a day care procedure and patient can go back to home on same day. These all are procedure not a surgery so hospitalization required and not incision and no scar. Pain relief usually start within one week.

FACET JOINT BLOCK

When back pain originates from the facet joints (located in each side of the vertebrae), a specific type of injection called a facet joint injection may reduce inflammation and provide pain relief. Doctors use live X ray to ensure the needle is correctly placed before the medicines are injected

RADIO-FREQUENCY ABLATION

If facet joint injection successful and pain comes back within a short period of time you might get benefits from a radio frequency ablation of medial branch. Radio frequency ablation is a specialized procedure which causes a thermal lesion on the medial branch. This procedure can give a long term pain relief.

TRANSFORAMINAL BLOCK

During transforaminal block, medications are injected into the foraminal space which is also called an epidural space. Epidural space is the area between the spinal sac and spinal canal, which runs the length of the canal. As the medicine is injected into the epidural space it coats the nerve roots and outside lining of the facet joints.

To read more about back pain see the section of SCIATICA.