It’s estimated that four out of five Americans will experience some form of back pain in their lifetimes. The pain and their root cause can present in different ways, but can be extremely debilitating to patients. To get a better understanding on the issue, Joshua Schwind, MD with Avera Orthopedics, explains some of the common causes and signs of a back pain.
How important is back health?
Back pain can be one of the most debilitating disorders that human beings will face. And in fact, some of the spinal deformity literature would say that it's just as disabling and just as much of a burden on the patient as heart disease, diabetes and cancer.
What does a pinched nerve feel like?
Pinched nerve pain generally goes down the legs plus or minus an element of the back. And depending on the level of the spine that's affected, different patterns of pain, numbness or weakness will manifest in the arm or leg. The first line treatment, especially if there's not a really profound deficit, is non-operative. That's time therapy and then sometimes in selected cases, an epidural steroid injection.
What is a herniated disc?
A herniated disc is largely symptomatic because it pinches a nerve and so those symptoms will look very similar. Sometimes a herniated disc will start off with a vague back pain and then evolve into an arm or leg issue. Once we find that a patient has a herniated disc, often they'll have had some trial of conservative management, whether that's just time and activity modifications or therapy. If the symptoms continue, sometimes we'll try an epidural steroid injection and surgery becomes a remedial option if all the other things have failed.
How much does aging or years of wear and tear impact back pain?
It's a big component. The spine consists of discs and then two joints at each level. And so that's a lot of opportunities for arthritic changes to happen, just like they happen in the knee, hip or shoulder. Those can manifest in a lot of different ways. They can manifest with just back pain. The nerves can get pinched by the arthritic process and cause leg pain. Or sometimes people can have symptoms called claudication where they can walk for maybe 20, 50 or 100 yards, but then they have to stop and sit down because the legs get fatigued and heavy.
How can people prevent back pain?
I wish I could give concrete advice on how to prevent it. The one thing that is probably the most helpful is maintaining a healthy weight and a high level of activity. That's not a guaranteed tincture against it happening. It can still happen for sure. But that's probably the best that you're going to do in your preventive efforts.
Learn about orthopedic care for the back and neck at Avera
