| Disc Replacement Surgery |
| Written by Jonathan Green | |
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Back pain can be very excruciating. If you have been experiencing back pain in the last few weeks or so then you will know how painful it can be. Back pain is common among most people. It could be due to bad posture while sitting or due to sudden twist of the back or any such thing. If you experience back pain it is better you consult a physician or doctor at once instead of medicating yourself with over the counter pain killers. If your doctor or physician prescribes painkillers and pain relieving gels to help reduce the pain, then you will get good relief if the problem is not serious. However, if your back pain still persists, then it’s time for some serious evaluation. You should work with your doctor to find out what is causing the back pain and how best to get relief from it. If surgery is the only option then you should consider it. What can cause back pain? The factors that can cause back pain include aging, trauma, improper body movements and of course normal wear and tear in the parts of your spine. If there is damage to any part of your back that causes extreme pressure on the nerves then it can result in severe pain. While almost all back pain responds well to non-surgical treatments like ice packs, heat treatment, physical therapy, massages and anti inflammatory medications, some people experience consistent severe back pain that only back surgery can provide relief. Doctors recommend back surgery or disc replacement surgery to their patients only if they have back pain which is accompanied by nerve damage. When the nerves are damaged they can cause much movement between the spinal cord bones and these results in severe pain. The symptoms of back pain where nerve damage has occurred include numbness and tingling feeling in your arms or legs, pain that flows down your legs, poor bladder or bowel control, and disks hat are squeezed and pinched nerves. The vertebrae in your spinal cord are separated by disks which are soft and flexible. These disks have a hard outer shell while the centre is soft and gel-like. The disks play the role of cushions in between the vertebrae. You will find nerves passing in between your spinal column. When the nerves are pinched they can cause a reduction in the space in the spine and ass people grow older the spinal disks tend to turn dry and begin to shrink leading to back pain as they loose their effectiveness as shock absorbers. It is to help people with these symptoms that disk replacement surgery is performed. Disk replacement surgery helps relieve the pressure on the nerves or spinal cord. How do doctors do this? Doctors remove small portions of bones so the narrow area gets wider I the vertebrae. Surgeons at times even remove the gel like substance found in the ruptured disks so the pinched nerves get good relief and pain gets reduced. At time surgeons have to remove the entire disk that helps to join the vertebral column together. If a patient suffers from damaged disk then the only alternative treatment is disk replacement surgery to help relive pain. After surgery in almost all cases the fractured vertebrae column begins to heal on its own, however if the spinal column is found to be unstable then surgeons will use metal plates, screws, cages, rods and bone grafts to provide support. The only viable option for degenerative disk disease is disk replacement surgery. In disk replacement surgery, doctors have the damaged disks removed and in place have a metal and plastic disk placed. Disk replacement surgery is the latest treatment for disk generative disease. People who are suffering from systemic bone disease are not advised disk replacement surgery by their doctors. Even those who have had back surgery earlier or those who have undergone spinal fusion are advised against disk replacement surgery. Disk replacement surgery is recommended only for those who are younger than 60 years have only one degenerative disk that requires replacement, those who have no bone diseases or any form of bone deformities. Patients wanting to undergo disk replacement surgery should have healthy weight, should not have undergone any other back surgery. This type of surgery is recommended by doctors only to patients who have failed to respond to other types and forms of non surgical treatment. The disks used in disk replacement surgery are of various designs and are either purely metallic or in a combination of metal and plastic. The materials used to make these discs include medical grade plastic or polyethylene along with medical grade cobalt chromium or titanium alloy. Disk replacement surgery can take up to a maximum of 6 hours in severe cases and up to 3 hours that require les surgery. After surgery, patients are required to spend 2 to 4 days in the hospital. |
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