Treatment Options For Degenerative Disc Disease

06 Oct

Posted by admin as Back Pain

Of Americans, 90% will suffer from back pain at some point, and all except 10% resolve their back pain uneventfully. Out of the remaining five to ten percent whose pain becomes chronic, a significant amount have degeneration of one or multiple intervertebral discs.

Degenerative disk disease, first of all, represents a quality of life issue. It is not a disease like liver disease or cancer that may need emergency or urgent surgery. Degenerative Disc Disease is a condition that is confined to a focal area and a person can live with it and skip surgery, although it may be debilitating.

Treatment options include:

1) Activity Modification and Weight Loss

2) Aerobic Exercise

3) Bracing

4) TENS

5) Medications

6) Physical Therapy

7) Chiropractic Treatment

8) Spinal Decompression Treatment

9) IDET

10) Interventional Pain Injections

11) Surgery – Fusion or Artificial Disc Replacement

Activity Modification is not a very exciting option. It simply means not performing painful activities. If jogging is painful for the back, change over to swimming or a cross training sport that doesn’t hurt. Weight loss may reduce the amount of pressure on the degenerated or ruptured disc, and may reduce pain.

Aerobic exercise has been shown in studies to be very beneficial for the health of the lumbar disc.Whether it’s swimming or cycling the disk receives benefits from the exercise.

Back bracing can be very helpful for pain relief. Studies have been equivocal on the benefits of bracing, however, it represents an inexpensive method of pain relief which anecdotally has been shown to provide excellent pain management relief for patients.

TENS machines are a non-invasive, safe, drug free method of pain relief that can decrease the need for pain medication and in addition supplement other treatments being received. A TENS machine is a device that transmits electrical pulses to the electrodes on the skin, which then transmit this electrical pulse to the underlying soft tissues.

Pain Medications include Tylenol (acetaminophen), NSAIDS, and narcotic pain medication in addition to muscle relaxers. There is a significant potential for narcotic abuse in the age group associated typically with DDD so caution should be exercised.

Physical therapy with lumbar strengthening and core stabilization may assist with pain management relief for degenerative disc disease. Strengthening the paraspinal muscles around the problem disc(s) can help unload the disk and decrease pain.

Numerous studies have shown chiropractic care to help with back pain that is acute. In conjunction with spinal decompression, the results can be quite impressive. Spinal Decompression Treatment is a revolutionary therapy which unloads the disc space and allows increased oxygen and nutrients to flow into the intervertebral disk. This can help fix an injured disc, stopping low back pain.

IDET is short for intradiscal electrothermal treatment. IDET was very popular for years, then the results seen were shown to be less satisfactory than initially reported. A significant amount of insurance companies decided to stop reimbursing for it based on the questionable results so it has since fallen out of favor.

Interventional pain management injections by pain doctors can be extremely beneficial. If a sciatica component exists with the Degenerative Disc Disease, epidural injections may help. If facet arthritis is associated, facet blocks may help. There is no intradiscal injection as of yet that has been shown to help with pain relief for degenerative disc disease.

If all nonsurgical treatments fail, surgery can electively be done as a quality of life decision. Surgical options include artificial disc replacement or spinal fusion. The results are between fifty to seventy five percent successful.Success does not always mean a zero pain result. Usually it’s relieved by one half or so with the definition of success.

Treatment Options For Degenerative Disc Disease
Do you know the treatments for degenerative disk disease in adolescents?

MRI demonstrated degenerative disk disease in 16 years old, as well as an EMG demonstrated a squeezed nerve within the c8

Frequently, DDD could be effectively treated without surgery. Physical rehabilitation, anti-inflammatory medicines for example nonsteroidal anti-inflammatory drugs, chiropractic care remedies, or spine injections frequently provide sufficient relief of those troubling signs and symptoms. Surgery might be suggested when the conservative treatments don’t provide relief within two to three several weeks. If leg or back discomfort limits normal activity, if there’s weakness or numbness within the legs, if it’s hard to walk or stand, or maybe medication or physical rehabilitation are ineffective, surgery might be necessary, most frequently spine fusion.

Osteopathic treatment goodies various facets of the degenerative process coming back the rear to optimal functioning. The therapy involves gentle stretches and manipulation towards the facet joints from the spine. Relaxation strategies to the resultant muscle spasm. The osteopath won’t only treat the degenerate area but treat the entire spine.

The general goal of treatment methods are to :

-cause you to comfortable as rapidly as you possibly can

-design a spine-care program to lessen further degeneration

-enable you to get normal again activity on time

Treatment Options for Degenerative Disk

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