Lumbar Back Pain

Want to know more about lumbar back pain? Then you are in the right place, in this article one of the best spine surgeons in Chennai explains about the lumbar back pain. One common cause for lower back pain can be a herniated lumbar disc or lumbar degenerative disc disease. Many times this pain would be a result of the disc material compressing the spinal nerves or spinal cord. Both of these conditions can cause sciatic like symptoms since your sciatic nerve is located in the lower back and sciatica symptoms would cause pain, numbness and tingling in the lower extremities.

While it is possible to avoid doing activities that may lead to a herniated lumbar disc, with something like lumbar degenerative disc disease it is unavoidable as it is caused by the normal degeneration of the structures in your spine that occur as we all age. As we get older these parts begin to break down from the normal wear and tear that the spine goes through daily. Keep in mind though that exercise and healthy living can decrease the rate of this degeneration so it is best to keep active and fit.

That does not mean that everyone will at some point have back pain due to a degenerative lumbar disc or even a herniated disc, as many people have these two back conditions and have no symptoms at all.

The lumbar area of your spine is known as the lower back, this region of the spine is responsible for bearing the weight of the body so these vertebrae are much larger in size then the ones above it. This larger size allows the vertebrae to support more weight than the vertebrae above it. Your lumbar area has 5 vertebrae numbered L1 thought L5.

A herniated disc occurs when the tough outer shell of the disc known as the annulus fibrous breaks or cracks open and allows the soft gel like center, the nucleus pulposus, to push out and into the spinal canal.

With lumbar degenerative disc disease these discs start to lose their flexibility, elasticity and shock absorbing properties due to the decrease in the amount of fluid that is inside the discs. This degeneration of the discs can lead to spinal instability as other areas of the spine get damaged either due to bone spurs or a thickening of the ligaments that help to support the spine.

Symptoms of a herniated lumbar disc or lumbar degenerative disc disease may be any of the following:

• Back pain
• Leg pain
• Muscle weakness
• Muscle spasms
• Back stiffness
• Pain that radiates down the legs and into your feet
• Decrease in the range of motion your back has
• Numbness or tingling
• Sciatica - pain that starts near the back or buttock and travels down the leg to the calf or into the foot

To diagnosis either condition your doctor will need to perform a physical examination and a complete medical history. They may need to use diagnostic tests such as an X-ray, CT scan or a MRI to rule out other back conditions that may be present with the same symptoms, as well as confirm the reason for your back pain.

What type of treatment you may need will depend on the cause of your back pain, your age, overall health, how severe your condition is, your lifestyle, and what you would prefer to do to treat this pain.

Low Back Pain - Causes and Symptoms

Low back pain is a quite common phenomenon in the humans and is generally experienced by all at some or the other point in their lives. The severity of the pain is often unrelated to the injury that has caused it. While a simple strain in the back can cause unbearable pain, a displaced disk may turn out to be quite painless.

What are the causes of low back pain.

Causes of Low back pain is often due to a wrong posture or displaced or strained back muscle. Irritation of the large nerve roots that go to our legs and our arms, a strain in the smaller nerves or an injury in any of the bones, ligaments or joints may also result in pain in the lower portion of our back.

Many a times, one can experience low back pain without any injury or known anatomical cause. However, back pain can be largely linked to a strain in any of the muscles or a specific condition such as degenerative disc disease or a herniated disc.

Most of the times, one can get rid of the low back pain by using conservative treatments, such as the application of ointments, physical therapy or oral medications. However, cure of certain back low pains may require surgery. 

One should seek proper medical treatment if the back pain continues for a long time, and is severe and accompanied by sudden bladder or bowel incontinence or progressive weakness in legs. Persons, who have suffered from fever, cold, trauma or undergone sudden weight loss, should seek proper medical attention from a best neurosurgeon in Chennai for the cure of their low back pain.

Available Options In Spinal Stenosis Treatment in Chennai

Back pain or spine ache is something that will usually annoy and irritate most people very much. As a matter of fact, it is often pretty painful. Due to the pain people feel on their back or spine, they are not likely to be able to run their businesses as successfully as before they get struck by the back pain or the spine ache. Yet, it is quite a fortune that it is not impossible to get over this painful feeling. In fact, there are quite a few available options in spinal stenosis treatment.

To start it off, those people who suffer from back pain can try carrying out daily exercises which are meant to relieve their back pain in a natural way. Yet, there are not few of those back pain or spine ache sufferers out there who do not really seem to believe that this method can actually work. They doubt that such exercises have the power to put the condition of their spine back to its normal working order. Instead, one assumption they have in common is that yoga and other natural exercises -- no matter what they may be -- will only relieve their symptoms for a temporary time period.

The second option available in spinal stenosis treatment is the spinal decompression therapy. This therapy will usually require the use of such spinal decompression machines as the DRX9000 and VAX-D. Both of these machines have been tested and proven to work in fixing compressed spinal canals that happen as a result of herniated discs.

Yet, there is one thing that spine ache sufferers will have to bear in their mind. These machines should never be intended to treat stenosis that happens as a result of osteoarthritis that leads to bony spurs.

Another available option when it comes to spinal stenosis treatment is the spine surgery in Chennai option. This last option is often considered to be the best and the most effective way in treating spinal stenosis. Laminectomy is one of the most sought after surgery in this case. It attempts to stop the spinal cord from being pressed continuously by disposing of the root or lamina of the vertebral bone that is affected by the spine.

Unfortunately, since laminectomy is quite an invasive treatment, patients should be prepared for the worst case that is complications. According to statistics, laminectomy often leads to spine instability. The worse thing is that there are usually not only one complications.

With that being said, patients should also be prepared to encounter failed back syndrome. If they come across this second complication, even repetitive surgeries are not quite likely to help them get over their back pain or spine ache. These complications make it necessary for patients to take additional medications such as antidepressants, minor nerve blocks, epidural steroid injections, NSAIDs and TENS.