Radiographs are primary tools to rule out etiologies of pain such as masses, fractures, spondylolysis, and spondylolisthesis. Axial imaging such as computed tomography (CT) scans, CT myelograms, and magnetic resonance imaging (MRI) is indicated when other etiologies of back pain or leg pain must be excluded or when spine surgery is being considered. MRI is non invasive and superior for identifying cord disorders, neural tumours, far lateral disks, and allows evaluation of the hydration of the disks and visualization of the marrow of the vertebral bodies. However, there is a high false-positive rate with MRI scans.
The subconscious is quite powerful. When programmed through the very visualizations that it suggests, it may be able to turn episodes of uncontrolled pain into events over which you have a degree of control.
In back pain inflammation is actually a defence mechanism for the body. Inflammation serves to bathe the injury in healing fluids and acts as a cushion to protect against further injury. This is what occurs in arthritis where the inflammation actually destroys the joints. Also, inflammation can serve to compound problems by actually causing pain itself.
This explains how an injury causes the body to release a number of bio chemicals that can cause inflammation. Another action of these biochemicals, though, is to stimulate the nerve fibres of pain, the C fibres. The body actually has three types of nerve fibres: A fibres. B fibres and C fibres. The main fibres which transmit the pain impulse are the C fibres.) Histamine, bradykinin, prostaglandins and the other bio-chemicals are actually the stimuli that cause the pain impulse to begin.
With back pain, the accepted spine surgery for a patient with a posterolateral HNP who has failed conservative treatment is a microdiskectomy. Visualization is achieved with loupe magnification or a microscope. A hemilaminotomy is performed, the local ligamentum flavum is removed, the nerve root is retracted, and the offending disk fragment is removed. It is no longer believed that the entire disk has to be removed. Other alternative treatments have not been proven to be as consistent as micro discectomy. However, recent spine surgery to insert the disc prosthesis is established in some countries but it is not yet the standard intervention.
Glen Wood - The Yoga Teacher, dedicated to unlocking the Real Secrets of Back, Neck and Shoulder Pain.
