Maybe you fear having to go through back surgery, but in reality, only 5% of the population will require an operation to treat a back problem. Your pain may be intense but most of the problems of tight muscles or wrinkled do not require surgery. These are reserved for severe cases of back pain (pinching of the spinal cord, structural deformation, serious cases of spinal stenosis).

You should consider surgery only after trying nonsurgical treatment for several months. Many surgical procedures can be performed using minimally invasive techniques, that is to say by "opening" unless the body. These techniques involve smaller incisions, shorter hospital stay, less intense pain after surgery and faster recovery.

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Among the conventional surgeries of the spine are:

The Facetectomie: A procedure that removes part of the joint facet (a bony structure in the spinal canal) to increase space.

The foraminotomy: A procedure that removes the foramen (the area where the nerve roots leave the spinal canal) to expand the neural pathway. This surgery can be performed alone or with a laminotomy.

The laminoplasty: A procedure that starts from the neck to reach the cervical spine (neck), then rebuilt to allow more room for the spinal canal.

The Laminotomy: A procedure that removes only a small portion of the vertebral lamina (part of the vertebra) to relieve pressure on nerve roots.

The microdiscectomy: A procedure that removes a disc through a tiny incision using a microscope.

The Lumbar Laminectomy: A procedure for treating spinal stenosis by relieving pressure on the spinal cord. A portion of the vertebral lamina (part of a vertebra) is removed or trimmed to widen the spinal canal and provide more space for spinal nerves.

If your doctor recommends surgery, ask always the goal of the operation, the results are output you would expect and possible complications. Feel free to request a second opinion if you suggested back surgery, it is your right. Your doctor will refer you to a specialist who will look to turn your problem.

To relieve your back pain, you might use to physiotherapy. A physiotherapist will work with you to restore your mobility and facilitate your healing. The therapist will teach you perhaps also some ways to minimize your pain in the future.

Physiotherapy treatment includes assets and liabilities. Passive treatments help you relax and your body. They are called passive because you do not actively participate. Your physical therapy program will begin probably by passive treatment while your body heals, but the goal is to switch to active treatment. These are therapeutic exercises that strengthen your body and help prevent the recurrence of your back pain.

Passive treatments

Your physiotherapist may use passive treatments such as:
A Deep Tissue Massage: This technique targets spasms and chronic muscle tension that can accumulate with daily stress. You may also experience muscle spasms or tension due to a hamstring injury. The therapist uses direct pressure and friction to try to relieve the tensions of your soft tissues (ligaments, tendons, muscles).

• The Hot / Cold Therapy: Your physical therapist will alternate therapies by heat and cold. Using heat, the therapist seeks to bring more blood to the area targeted for better blood flow brings more oxygen and nutrients. Blood is also needed to eliminate "waste" created by muscle spasms and help healing.

• The cold therapy, also called cryotherapy, slows circulation, helping to reduce inflammation, muscle spasm and pain. A cold compress is placed over the target area, or you may even receive a massage in the ice. Another option cryotherapy: a spray called fluoromethane that cools the tissue. After cold therapy, your doctor probably will work on stretching your muscles affected.

• TENS (transcutaneous electrical nerve stimulation): A TENS unit stimulates your muscles with varying intensities (but safe) electrical current. TENS helps reduce muscle spasm and can increase production of endorphins, the body's natural painkillers. TENS equipment used by your therapist is relatively large. However, a smaller machine for use at home is also available. Small or large, a TENS unit can be a great help.
• Ultrasound: By increasing blood circulation, an ultrasound helps reduce muscle spasms, cramps, swelling, stiffness and pain. By sending sound waves deep into the muscle tissue, it creates a gentle heat that promotes circulation and healing.

Treatments Assets

In the active part of physical therapy, your therapist will teach you various exercises to improve flexibility, strength, balance and your range of motion (how easily move your joints). Your physical therapy program is individualized and takes into consideration your health and your medical history. The exercises that are recommended are not suitable work for another person suffering from back pain, especially the fact that your pain may not have the same origin.

If necessary, you will learn to correct your posture and incorporate ergonomic principles into your daily activities. This is part of the look "self-treatment" of physiotherapy: With it, you will learn good habits and principles that will help you take better care of your body.

Your physical therapist can also suggest an exercise program, which will reduce the chances that your back pain reappeared and improve your overall health.

Most causes of neck pain or back pain are acute and treatable: it identifies and then implements a plan of care tailored, that often make the pain go away or reduce it. In the case of chronic pain, for cons, it must often settle for a bad management: their causes may be difficult to determine. Care program can claim several successive or combined therapies. Because of its complexity, chronic pain may take longer to heal; specialists in pain management have different therapies from which to create a treatment for chronic pain. Some examples:

Injections
Many types of spinal injections to diagnose and treat various disorders, here's a preview.
Epidural injections and nerve roots are blocking injections of anesthetics and steroids into the epidural space of the spine. They can diagnose a problem and / or relieve pain. We often use the epidural injection to alleviate pain that radiates into the arms or legs.
Injections into the facet joints and the medial branch block to help determine whether the facet joints are the source of pain. Besides their usefulness for diagnosis, such injections can reduce neck pain (neck), thoracic (affecting consumptive area) and lumbar (attacking the back).
Injections in the sacroiliac joints are designed to soothe the joints of the lower back where the spine and pelvis meet. Their purpose is twofold: injected drugs (anesthetics and steroids) calm the inflammation and therefore pain joints, but they also determine whether the sacroiliac joints are the source of evil.

Alternatives to invasive treatment
Radiofrequency neurotomy (NRF) is a minimally invasive procedure that disables the spinal nerves to stop them from sending pain signals to the brain.
Rhizotomy the "off" the pain signals by applying to the nerves responsible for sending these signals of heat through the electrodes.
Stimulation of the spinal cord (EMS) and intrathecal pumps are advanced solutions for pain management. Generally, they are first performed on the basis of a test to determine whether treatment is beneficial to the patient.
Stimulation of the spinal cord (EMS) is to send electrical pulses to prevent pain from being perceived by the brain.
An intrathecal pump is a device surgically implanted and that the spinal canal which delivers a measured amount of pain.
Surgical procedures
They are always considered a last resort, unless the patient's condition warrants immediate intervention (eg in case of bowel dysfunction, bladder or neurological deep). If non-surgical treatments are ineffective, then we can consider spinal surgery.
Discectomy or percutaneous nucleoplasty is a minimally invasive surgical procedure that removes the disc tissue and relieve spinal nerve compression. Other types of spinal surgery exist, some of which involve complicated procedures and spinal instrumentation or bone fusion.
The pain management improves quality of life
Unfortunately, many people see pain as something with which we must live and suffer in silence, or as an inevitable consequence of aging. Today, advances in terms of pain management offer many solutions to patients and physicians. Many cases of acute and chronic pain can be treated successfully. You have pain? Consult your doctor or specialist in pain management to discuss possible solutions to your problems.