Dementia and Your Loved One

Recovering From A Painful "Slipped Disc"

22 March 2016

Vickie Armstrong

The box you lifted was much heavier than you thought. You felt a sudden sharp pain in your back and numbness down your leg. This is the sign of a ruptured intervertebral disc, also referred to as a slipped disc. An orthopaedic doctor will diagnose the extent of the injury and recommend treatment options ranging from bed rest to surgery. Here is why you are having the pain and what your doctor can do to remedy it.

A Little About Your Anatomy

Your spine consists of several vertebrae made of bone with spongy discs in between them. The discs cushion the bones and make your spine flexible. When an excess force is placed your spine, a disc can rupture and allow the gel-like fluid inside to escape. This fluid pushes against the nerves that come out of the spine, causing you to have lower back pain. If the disc pushes against nerves that extend into your leg, you'll have numbness and tingling down that one leg.

The severity of the pain depends on the extent of the injury to the disc. Treatments are focused on reducing the pressure of the disc on the nerves to give you relief from the pain as the disc heals.

Treatment Options for a Ruptured Disc

The material that makes up the discs have little blood supply in them, so they take longer to heal than other tissues in the body. If the rupture of the disc is minor, where the disc shows only a slight bulge on one side, non-invasive treatment may be sufficient to relieve the pain. In more extreme cases, where the disc has split open and the gel-like fluid has been released, surgery may be required to remove the disc and stabilize your spine.

Bed rest and medication - For a minor injury, your doctor may recommend staying in bed and taking anti-inflammatory and pain medications. A few days of bed rest may give you enough relief from the pain so you can slowly return to your normal daily activities.

Back supports - After bed rest, your doctor may recommend a back brace to support your back while it continues to heal. During the healing of even a minor disc injury, you can put stress on the area and make the problem worse. A back support will prevent you from moving your spine in ways that aggravate the condition.

Physical therapy - Your doctor may have you begin a series of physical therapy sessions. These help relieve the tension in the muscles in your back to give you some pain relief.

Steroid injections - Steroids are powerful anti-inflammatory medications and may be used to relieve pain in your back while it heals. The injection is done in the area of the ruptured disc and will give you some temporary relief.

Surgery to remove portions of the disc - For a complete rupture of the disc, part of it may have to be removed surgically to reduce the pressure on the nerves. After the surgery, you'll wear a back support for several weeks as the remaining portion of the disc heals. You'll then begin physical therapy to regain normal movement in your back and strengthen the back muscles.

Surgical removal of the entire disc - If the injury is severe, then the entire disc must be removed. In its place, bone chips will be packed into the space to fuse the two adjoining vertebrae together. To stabilize the spine as the vertebrae fuse together, metal rods are inserted along the spine. The area cannot move while the new bone becomes solid between the vertebrae. You'll wear a back support for several weeks after the surgery, then start on a physical therapy program to restore flexibility in your back.

For an orthopaedic doctor, contact an office such as Orthopaedic Associates Of Rochester.

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