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Lumbar Degenerative Disc

Degenerative disc disease (DDD) of the lumbar spine is a relatively common condition in aging adults. Our intervertebral discs serve as shock absorbers for the spine, and as we age they gradually dry out, losing strength and resiliency. These changes are gradual in most people. In fact, many of our patients don’t know they have degenerative disc disease. They only become aware of the condition when being examined for another health problem.

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 Lumbar Disc Degeneration: Why Degenerative Findings Do Not Always Equal Pain

Have you been told that you have lumbar disc degeneration? Despite the scary sounding name, a change in the condition of your spinal discs doesn't automatically mean you'll experience lower back pain. In fact, many people are surprised to learn that they have lumbar disc degeneration because they have no symptoms.

 Lumbar Disc Degenerative Disease: Disc Degeneration Symptoms and Magnetic Resonance Image Findings

Lumbar disc degenerative disease has now been proven as the most common cause of low back pain throughout the world. It may present as disc herniation, lumbar spinal stenosis, facet joint arthropathy or any combination. Presenting symptoms of lumbar disc degeneration are lower back pain and sciatica which may be aggravated by standing, walking, bending, straining and coughing.

 Why Degenerative Disc Disease Surgery Doesn’t Work

If you or someone you know are living with degenerative disc disease and haven’t gotten relief from conservative treatment methods, surgery was probably the next recommendation. Degenerative disc disease surgery is generally how this condition is treated when methods like exercise, physical therapy, or medication fail to provide relief. The problem is that surgery is rarely able to provide lasting relief from degenerative disc disease pain.

Articles of Interest

Degenerative Disc Disease 101

Do you believe that your lower back pain is being caused by degenerative disc disease? It’s important to start your treatment with an accurate diagnosis. Fortunately, there are a number of effective treatments for degenerative disc disease.

Lumbar Degenerative Disc Disease: Current and Future Concepts of Diagnosis and Management

Low back pain as a result of degenerative disc disease imparts a large socioeconomic impact on the health care system. Traditional concepts for treatment of lumbar disc degeneration have aimed at symptomatic relief by limiting motion in the lumbar spine, but novel treatment strategies involving stem cells, growth factors, and gene therapy have the theoretical potential to prevent, slow, or even reverse disc degeneration.

A Useful Treatment for the “Dreaded” Degenerative Disc Disease

It seems like every patient has it — the dreaded degenerative disc disease (DDD) with low back pain. As we all know, DDD is not a disease, and much to the surprise of our patients, it is just part of the normal aging process starting as early as age 30. This does not mean your patients don’t experience back pain, but how to treat the problem is another matter. Fortunately, there is radiofrequency ablation of the lumbar spine

Degenerative Disc Disease: Debunking Myths

Many people believe incorrectly that degenerative disc disease only affects older people. While this condition certainly can affect the elderly, it is most often seen in people between the ages of 25 and 55.

For Spinal Disks, Waiting Appears Equal to Surgery

With the new results, it is clear that the risk of waiting “is, if not extraordinarily small, at least off the radar screen,” Dr. Carragee said.

Foraminal Stenosis 101

The condition can be caused by a number of things, any of which can narrow the foraminal opening and put pressure on the nerves passing through to the spinal canal.

How Back Pain Took Over the World

The biggest cause of disability around the world is surprisingly banal.

Lumbar Degenerative Disease Part 1: Anatomy and Pathophysiology of Intervertebral Discogenic Pain ...

Pathoanatomy and pathophysiology of degenerative disc disease is a subject of intensive scientific research, the pathological neurotization of sinuvertebral nerve and basivertebral nerve can lead to siginificant pain and disability. Radiofrequency ablation to sinuvertebral and basivertebral nerve is effective in our prospective case series. More investigation should be considered in the treatment of sinuvertebral and basivertebral nerve.

Lumbar Disc Disorders

Lumbar disc disorders include degenerative disc disease (disc desiccation, annular fissures and tears, loss of disc height, endplate injury and bulges), disc herniations (displacement of nuclear material outside the annulus fibrosus), and infectious etiologies (discitis). When symptomatic, this can lead to axial back pain, radiculopathy, or cauda equina syndrome.

Needless treatments: spinal fusion surgery for lower back pain is costly and there’s little evidence it’ll work

There is little high-quality evidence to support the use of spinal fusion for most back-related conditions, including spinal stenosis. And there is disagreement between surgeons on when spinal fusion surgery should be performed, not only for back pain but also for more acute conditions such as tumours and spine fractures.

Pro athletes make fixing back pain look easy. It isn’t

What often goes unmentioned is that, after two years, the outcome for those who opt for surgery and those who pursue conservative care is essentially the same. For most people, after a few weeks or months, the protruding, pain-causing disc tissue shrivels up and disintegrates, and the pain fades away.

The best $29.95 I ever spent: A lumbar pillow

From ice or heat to support accessories, rehab, steroid injections, and surgery, industries and medical subspecialties have sprouted around people’s back trouble. Of these measures, lumbar support — designed to treat pain of the lumbar, or lower, spine — comes in several forms, including back braces, belts, and other orthotics. The evidence for use of these methods in treating low back pain is sketchy at best, but the effectiveness of pillow-like chair attachments has been examined.

The degenerative lumbar disc: not a disease, but still an important consideration for OMPT practice: a review of the history and science of discogenic instability

How do we assist patients with lower backache and segmental instability secondary to disc degeneration? We believe manual traction and oscillatory distraction mobilizations, which can be applied in several different fashions, can decompress pain-sensitive segments and will not foster further segmental instability. It is our contention that this traction-based manual intervention should be performed with lumbar segments in mid-position without the addition of side bending or rotation.

The Medical Riddle of Steve Kerr’s Back Pain

Golden State Warriors coach’s herniated disk highlights question of whether to get surgery or try rehab.

To Fix That Pain In Your Back, You Might Have To Change The Way You Sit

So maybe Sherer is right. Maybe the problem, when it comes to back pain, isn't how much Americans are sitting, but the way we're sitting.

Why Back Pain Is Nearly Non-Existent In Some Populations

There are a few places, though, where back pain hardly exists, mostly indigenous cultures far removed from modern life.

Why Running May Be Good for Your Back

People who regularly run or walk briskly appear to have healthier discs in their spines than people who do not exercise, according to one of the first studies to closely examine links between movement and disc health.

Resources

Discseel Procedure

While mild sedation relaxes you, and after your Annulogram identifies your discs’ tears, your Physician seals all your tears by injecting Fibrin, an FDA-Approved biologic. Nothing else, including stem cells, can do this. Fibrin’s natural healing abilities have been known for centuries, it just took the Discseel® Procedure to bring them to you.

Spine-Health

Despite what the name suggests, degenerative disc disease is neither considered a true disease nor does it progressively worsen with time. Discs naturally stiffen with use and age, and everyone experiences some disc degeneration. Degenerative disc disease refers only to the condition of painful disc degeneration, and it is not uncommon for symptoms to alleviate as the spine gradually stabilizes.

Johns Hopkins

Most of the time, disk disease happens as a result of aging and the normal break down that occurs within the disk. Sometimes, severe injury can cause a normal disk to herniate. Injury may also cause an already herniated disk to worsen.