5 Advanced Ways of Managing Chronic Back Pain
Life sometimes presents with different twists and turns, especially when you’re getting older. However, certain conditions do not even wait for you to get old before they start manifesting. The fact that you have to get up in the morning to go to work may present with different physical stressors which lead to different life twists most especially back pain.
Many people miss work due to back pain or injuries. In fact, back pain is a common cause of disability around the world. It is a common reason people miss work. Understandably, treating chronic back pain may present a lot of challenges, but advances in pain management have shown that it is possible to treat back pain and live comfortably.
Read on to discover new and advanced ways of managing even chronic back pain.
What is chronic back pain?
Chronic back pain is the type of pain that persists for three months or more. Usually, the pain is non-specific and may not be due to any underlying cause. Converging lines of evidence suggest that chronic back pain may result from degenerative problems, injuries, or even congenital problems such as spinal irregularities.
Stress and back pain
Stress is a form of response to our perceptions of different situations. Stress can manifest itself emotionally as anxiety (psychologically) or physically. When stress manifests itself physically, it triggers a physiological response that causes muscles to tighten up leading to physical deconditioning, and muscle weakness which travels down our spine and manifests as back pain.
5 Advanced ways for managing chronic back pain
There are several remedies for back pain. Here are the advanced ways for treating chronic back pain:
Spinal cord stimulation
Spinal cord stimulation (SCS) is a safe and effective advanced method for managing chronic back pain that is unresponsive to conventional medications including opioids. SCS works by inhibiting pain signals traveling between the spinal cord and the brain. Hence, it offers long=term pain treatment and gives patients the opportunity to carry on with their daily functions.
Radiofrequency ablation
This is an advanced pain management procedure that uses heat energy to disrupt pain signals traveling between the spine and the brain. During a typical radiofrequency ablation procedure, electric currents generated by radio waves serve as the heat energy source. The heat energy warms up nerve tissues and inhibits pain transmission. Radiofrequency ablation is very effective and offers long-term relief for chronic back pain.
Lumbar medial branch block
A lumbar medial branch block effectively removes pain in the lower back region. This procedure involves co-administration of a local anesthetic and a corticosteroid injection usually into the nerves innervating the facet joints of the spine which disrupts pain signals traveling from the nerves to the brain. This procedure is highly beneficial since pain relief is long-lasting and prevents patients from having to undergo surgery.
A similar alternative to the lumbar medial branch block is the lumbar facet injection. Instead of administering the facet injection directly to the nerves innervating the facet joints, the facet injection is targeted to the facet joint instead of the innervating nerves.
Epidural steroid injection
Epidural steroid injections (ESI) have been available for decades for the non-invasive treatment of sciatica and lower back pain. These injections work by reducing the sensitivity of the nerve fibers to pain and reducing inflammation around the nerve roots. Hence, epidural injections reduce pain by improving mobility and function of the back. In most cases, epidural injections are administered in combination with physical therapy.
Trigger point injection
Certain types of back pain occur as a result of tight, knotted muscles. These are called trigger points. Hence, trigger point injections are designed to treat chronic back pain resulting from trigger points. A trigger point injection uses an anesthetic and a corticosteroid injection to relieve pain and can be combined with physical therapy to get the best result.
Chronic back pain can be a very challenging disability. But it shouldn’t affect your quality of life and productivity at work. Our team of doctors at Hadi Medical Group provides pain management treatments for chronic back pain in Brooklyn, Hempstead, Plainview, and Long Beach, NY