NONSURGICAL TREATMENT OPTIONS
Physical Therapy
Physical therapy is a valuable treatment option in treating patients with spine problems such as neck pain, back pain, cervical strains, lumbar sprains as well as degenerative disease related pain symptoms. Click here for information on safe exercises you can do for you back at home.
Oral Medications
Medications such as nonsteroidal antiinflammatories (NSAIDS), Gabapentin (Neurontin) and Pregabalin (Lyrica) can be very effective in helping with inflammatory as well as neuropathic pain associated in patients with spine problems. Long term use of narcotic pain medications are best avoided to prevent dependence and overdose issues. Frequently, long term use of narcotics can be avoided by accurate diagnosis and rapid treatment of spine problems. However, in certain circumstances a short course of narcotic pain medications maybe appropriate such as in the control of surgical pain and acute severe pain symptoms related to spinal problems.
Chiropractic Treatment
In certain circumstances patients benefit greatly from chiropractic treatment. Generally speaking if there is no spinal instability, severe spinal cord or nerve root impingement then it should be safe for patients to undergo chiropractic treatment. If however, you are concerned about potential spinal instability or severe spinal cord/nerve root compression we would be happy to evaluate your condition further. Dr. Anil Kesani Feel free to call us and make an appointment at SpineMD.
NONSURGICAL TREATMENT OPTIONS
Spinal Injections
Spinal injections are extremely important form of nonsurgical treatment used to treat patients with spine problems such as neck pain, back pain, pinched nerve related pain resulting in radiating arm or leg pain (radiculopathy). If used appropriately, it can frequently avoid or delay the need for surgery. As long as there is no spinal fracture, severe spinal cord compression, or severe nerve root compression with weakness, at SpineMD we commonly recommend spinal injections before surgery. It can also be a valuable diagnostic tool in patients who have degenerative changes/disc herniations/disc bulges at multiple levels in their spine as it can help determine the causative level for a majority of a given patients pain symptoms. Thereby allowing your spine surgeon do a smaller and more limited spine surgery to address only the levels that are responsible for a majority of the pain. Therefore, these patients tend to have quicker recovery times from surgery and a reduced chance of complications.
There are several types of spinal injections/procedures:
- Epidural injections
- Facet joint injections
- Rhizotomies or Radiofrequency ablation of the small pain nerves fibers to the facet joints
At SpineMD, we determine the appropriate injections that a given patient would need after talking with them to figure out what type of pain symptoms a patient is experiencing, the severity of the pain, the distribution or area the pain affects as this can give us an idea of the level that is causing the pain; followed by a careful physical examination as well as reviewing the patients imaging studies including X-Rays, MRIs, CT scans etc. If you are experiencing bothersome spine related pain symptoms, we would be happy to evaluate you. Please feel free to call us and make an appointment. We look forward to seeing you!
NONSURGICAL TREATMENT OPTIONS
Sarcoiliac Injections
Sacroiliitis is a common source of debilitating lower back pain. Frequently sacroiliac joint injections are used in conjunction with other forms nonsurgical treatments in order to treat sacroiliitis.
Trochanteric Bursal Injections
Trochanteric bursitis is a fairly common source of hip and thigh pain. Trochanteric bursal injections can be very effective in treating the inflammation that causes the pain.