The question of how to deal with arthritis in the back is not an easy one. Back arthritis comes from various causes, most of which originate from degeneration of the intervertebral disc. Once the disk starts to dehydrate and degenerate, then ensuing arthritic changes occur in that level of the spinal column.

The other elements in the spinal column include the facet joints of which there are one joint on each side at each level of the spine. The typical big problem when dealing with back arthritis is facet joint arthritis. These facet joints are around the size of a thumbnail and they are situated at each spinal level symmetrically.

When dealing with facet joint arthritis unfortunately if you have arthritis at any one particular joint most likely you also have arthritis at multiple others. So it’s a lot more complicated than dealing with a single ball and socket joint like the hip. Isn’t this great?

So if you were to have spine surgery on all of the arthritic joints, you would have a spinal fusion at multiple levels which is not a good idea unless there is associated scoliosis or instability to address.

Some very good options exist for treating back arthritis that are nonsurgical. One nonoperative option for example would be spinal decompression treatment. These therapies consist of about 6 weeks of intermittent spine traction which may be effective in pain relief from facet arthritis.

An additional option for facet arthritis treatment is phoenix physical therapy. Strengthening the paraspinal muscles can take stress and pressure off of the facet joints as it is the movement and stress and pressure which increase the pain. So strengthening one’s core and doing lumbar stabilization exercises can decrease the pain from back arthritis.

One of the best options that we have for treating arthritis in the facet joints are facet injections, also called facet blocks. The facet joint injections include steroid medication which currently is the gold standard. Another injection that may be of benefit are medial branch blocks, which are injections around what’s called the medial branches which are the tiny little nerves that supply sensation to the joints. These injections may include simply numbing medicine or also steroid medication too.

Assuming you want to achieve some sort of relief for back pain from arthritis with either medial branch blocks or facet injections, but potentially a combination of the two, and this wears off, the next step that may be of significant benefit is called radiofrequency ablation.

Radiofrequency ablation, known as rhizotomy, is a treatment that entails burning the small nerve endings the bring sensation to the facet joints, and that is causing the pain from arthritis. So if the pain can be eliminated with radiofrequency ablation (RFA), the objective was achieved. Pain reduction from radiofrequency ablation, also termed rhizotomy, may be achieved upwards of 2 years but usually it’s around six to twelve months.

Back Arthritis Treatment Has No Holy Grail

The First 1000 Days: Cassini Explores The Saturn System

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