Chronic and acute back pain: causes and treatment

According to medical statistics, acute back pain is the second most common cause of disability. At least 80% of people have had them at least once. They may occur infrequently or be observed with exacerbations of diseases of the spine. But in all cases, acute and chronic back pain requires competent treatment and deliberate action on its cause.

Acute back pain: causes

causes of back pain

Acute pain is pain that lasts less than 6 weeks. For most, it should go away within 2 weeks. Though at first it was impossible to predict how long it would last. However, in nearly half of all cases, the same or more severe attacks repeat afterward and become chronic.

Acute pain can be of varying intensity, dull, burning, . . . Sometimes it spreads to arms, legs, and buttocks. So-called back pain usually occurs after hypothermia, exertion, and a sprain. A few days may pass between the effects of the traumatic factor and the direct manifestation of pain syndrome and it will manifest itself under the impact of a slight physical effort, such as bending.

They can also be the result of a back injury or the first manifestation of spinal diseases, including:

  • bone necrosis;
  • disc herniation
  • ;
  • degenerative vertebrae;
  • spinal stenosis, v. v.

Increase the chances of the problem returning:

  • frequently stressful;
  • regularly increases physical activity;
  • overweight;
  • stands frequently and lasts.

In addition to back discomfort, headache, burning in the legs and dizziness may develop. All of these symptoms must be reported to the doctor upon appointment.

Regardless of which anatomical structure is damaged first, this entails a series of successive changes that increase discomfort. Initially, inflammatory factors are formed in the damage, causing swelling and irritation of nerve fibers. In response to this, muscle spasms often occur, which exacerbates the situation and causes circulatory disorders in the affected area. This results in a decrease in the amount of nutrients and oxygen entering the damaged area, as well as the retention of metabolic products in it.

Treatment of acute back pain

To relieve pain, lie on your back on a hard surface. This will allow your back muscles to relax and reduce stress on your spine. To improve its effect, you can place orthopedic pillows under the knees and under the head, but should avoid sagging back. In the event of severe pain, short-term use of NSAIDs is allowed. In the future, it is imperative that you contact a neurologist or spinal surgeon to determine the cause of your pain syndrome.

As soon as possible, you should see a doctor if there is no improvement within a week, recurrence or irradiated pain in the feet or knees, violation of urination and defecation. To diagnose existing disorders, the patient is viewed:

  • MRI;
  • CT;
  • x-ray;
  • biochemical blood test;
  • UAC.

Based on the research results and the characteristics of the symptoms, the doctor makes a diagnosis and develops treatment strategies. In the event that an acute pain disrupts a person's ability to work, they may be offered a spinal blockage method, which provides pain relief for a few minutes.

After the discomfort subsides, it is important not to linger in bed. Moderate physical activity, supplemented with special exercises in medical fitness, is the best way to prevent such episodes from coming back in the future.

When you arrive at the hospital, you will definitely get high-quality treatment for the pain syndrome and its cause. Specialists will be able to develop the most effective and rapid pain relief strategies with the help of a well-executed, affordable method of blockade.

Chronic back pain: causes

People suffer from chronic back pain frequently. They can worsen and turn into an acute pain, leaving the person completely out of a normal rhythm. Usually they are the result of:

  • A sedentary lifestyle makes the corset muscle weaker. This increases the load on the spine and compresses the vertebrae. The result is osteogenesis, disc convex and disc herniation, and spondylolisthesis.
  • Postural disturbances. The permanent maintenance of any position in the body in which the natural curves of the spine are broken, causing the curvature and development of scoliosis or scoliosis. This entails degenerative changes in the intervertebral discs, redistribution of the load onto the muscles and compression of nerve roots.
  • The abs are weaker. Since they act as a support for the internal organs and partially relieve the spine, when they are weak, the load on the lower back increases, which increases fatigue and causes chronic pain. count. In addition to a sedentary lifestyle, weaker abdominal muscles can be the result of pregnancy or obesity.
  • Age changes. Over the years, the discs gradually lose water, reducing their elasticity, strength, and size. The loops around the nucleus resemble jelly, and the longan dries and becomes more fragile. The load stimulates the formation of cracks in it, which leads to the formation of concave protrusions and hernias. As a result, the protrusion can squeeze adjacent blood vessels, nerve roots, spinal cord, causing pain syndrome.

Chronic back pain includes:

  • bone necrosis;
  • degenerative vertebrae;
  • osteoporosis;
  • disc herniation
  • ;
  • syndrome
  • ;
  • ankylosing spondylitis;
  • spondylolisthesis;
  • rheumatoid arthritis;
  • intercostal nerve pain;
  • cancer and others.

A common cause of chronic pain is deterioration of the joints. The cartilage in it is also susceptible to thinning due to excessive stress on the spine. As a result, when they move, they no longer perform the function of shock absorption, causing friction of bone fragments and the development of inflammation.

Back Pain Treatment

Treatment strategies are developed based on disorders that have been discovered in diagnostic studies. When spinal diseases are discovered, initial conservative therapy is indicated, including:

  • drug therapy;
  • physiotherapy;
  • massage;
  • exercise therapy.

Conservative therapy

A holistic, personalized approach is important when it comes to back pain treatment. Depending on the cause of the occurrence, the patient is prescribed a number of medications, namely:

  • NSAIDs - drugs in this group have anti-inflammatory and analgesic effects, but if used long term they will negatively affect the condition of the gastrointestinal tract;
  • corticosteroids - drug with pronounced anti-inflammatory properties, is prescribed in moderate to severe cases;
  • Muscle relaxant
  • - helps to eliminate increased muscle tone and spasm;
  • Antidepressant drug
  • - helps to eliminate psychological discomfort, often reduces the effectiveness of conservative therapy;
  • topical - ointments or gels containing anti-inflammatory, warming, or cooling ingredients that can help reduce the severity of pain and practically no side effects;
  • chondroprotectors - glucosamine and chondroitin-containing preparations have a beneficial effect on the condition of cartilage tissue, increasing elasticity and helping to restore normal thickness.
medicine block back

In mild cases, oral medication is sufficient. But in more complex situations, intra-articular injection may be prescribed to the patient. In the event of severe pain, you should perform a single or full blockade, which may include up to 10 procedures.

In order to improve the effectiveness of drug therapy, the patient is assigned to massage sessions and physical therapy. Accurate action on the back muscles helps to activate blood and lymph flow, improve metabolism and eliminate muscle spasm. Manual therapy is very effective in cases of spinal deformity, especially scoliosis degree 1-2. Regular training sessions restore the normal position of the spine and reduce the pressure on internal organs.

As part of physical therapy patients are assigned to sessions:

  • UHF;
  • magnetotherapy;
  • Current Bernard;
  • laser therapy
  • ;
  • electrophoresis
  • ;
  • UFO;
  • balneological treatment.

If within six months the condition does not improve or is at risk of complications, the patient may be prescribed surgery for the existing condition.

Surgical treatment

Modern surgical interventions are distinguished by a high degree of effectiveness and safety. They allow you to quickly eliminate the pathological cause of the development of pain syndrome and usually do not require a hospital stay. But most minimally invasive and microsurgical methods can be used only when the patient is referred to the spine surgeon in the early stages of the disease.

The surgical treatment indications are:

  • progressive herniated disc;
  • spinal stenosis
  • ;
  • isolated herniation;
  • fracture of the spine
  • ;
  • degree 3-4 scoliosis curvature;
  • severe form of degenerative spondylosis;
  • compresses the spinal cord or its nerve roots;
  • hemangioma of the vertebral body;
  • unstable of individual segments of the spine;
  • Equina
  • cauda syndrome.

Surgeons determine the type of surgery based on the severity of the patient's condition. With the same diagnosis, surgical treatment can be performed in different ways, varying in degree of invasiveness, effectiveness, recovery time and cost.

Recently, minimally invasive surgical treatments have been very popular. With their help, the treatment of bulging disc, disc herniation, hemangioma and a number of other diseases are carried out. Minimum invasive surgery takes no more than an hour, after completion, patients can almost immediately walk and leave the clinic the same day or the next day.

Back pain surgery

The big advantage of the method is its good aesthetic effect (in most cases all the necessary surgical instruments are inserted through the soft tissue punctures), easy to repair. retractable and affordable. In the case of disc herniation, only cryotherapy with cold plasma or vitrectomy (hydrodiscectomy) may be considered a more promising approach.

In situations where microsurgery is not possible, open operations are performed by surgeons. In the process, it is possible to completely remove pathologically altered structures, eliminate severe deformations of the spine, replace irreversible structures with implants, and achieve normal functionof the spine by attaching titanium metal structures.

Modern spine surgery can solve almost any back problem. All the most up to date surgical treatments for spinal diseases are available in many facilities. A team of doctors with a variety of profiles will help get rid of acute or chronic exacerbation of back pain as soon as possible.

Back pain prevention

After the seizures and dull pain have stopped, to avoid another attack, it is recommended:

  • do not lift anything too heavy;
  • don't bend over;
  • walk more;
  • give up hard manual labor;
  • when sitting down, take regular breaks to warm up.