Low back pain affects many people, regardless of their age and profession. Porters and office workers, young retired mothers and gardeners, writers and even athletes all suffer from it. In any of them, pathological changes in the bone and cartilaginous tissues of the vertebrae can occur, leading to compression (compression) of the spinal nerve roots, which causes severe pain.
But painful sensations are only external manifestations of the disease. It is often accompanied by other pathological syndromes that require mandatory treatment, the absence of which often leads to disability and the ability to self-care. In other words, a person becomes disabled.
Description of the disease
Osteochondrosis is caused by unnatural compression of the spine, which causes compression of the intervertebral discs and adjacent tissues of the ligamentous apparatus. When squeezed, a liquid leaves the discs, responsible for its plasticity and source of nutrition of the tissues with the necessary microelements. With the prolonged negative impact, the fibrous ring of the intervertebral discs loses its elasticity and density and then breaks, leading to compression of the nerve endings. This becomes the cause of the appearance of pain, which is often accompanied by edema.
In addition, the outer edges of the vertebrae with an incorrectly distributed load on them are covered with osteophytes - growths of bone tissue. They also cause pain and restrict spinal movements, aggravating the problem.
That is, the disease occurs more frequently with these loads on the spine, which are incorrectly distributed or stereotyped - they are monotonous and are repeated regularly.
Causes of the occurrence
Don't assume that just intense physical activity or a sedentary lifestyle, in which muscle structure weakens, leads to osteochondrosis of the lumbar spine. This also happens to people who are very active, involved in sports or who work daily in their vacation homes. If your movements are monotonous (lifting the bar, digging the ground), pressure occurs at the same points, in which the cartilaginous tissues are gradually destroyed.
There are also other reasons. Among them:
- violation of calcium metabolism in the body;
- overweight or its severe fluctuations in any direction when following a strict diet, pregnancy, a sudden change in hormone levels;
- spinal cord injury or curvature (scoliosis);
- severe single hypothermia or regular exposure to cold, humidity;
- depressive conditions, stress;
- constant physical overload;
- bad heredity.
Pay attention. Any strict diets based on the use of a product or a critical reduction in caloric intake lead not only to a marked loss of weight, but also to the emergence of a deficiency of valuable trace elements in the body. Which is also bad for muscles and bones.
Symptoms
Osteochondrosis is rarely detected in time, as in the initial phase it is asymptomatic. More precisely, there are symptoms, but they are difficult to associate with spinal problems. Therefore, they are most often discovered by accident during a comprehensive examination for other health problems.
There are four stages of development of the disease. We will describe the symptoms of each.
| Stage | Description |
|---|---|
| First | In the first stage, sweating processes are stopped, a person notices general malaise and rapid fatigue. Some patients talk about an unusual sensation of cold in the feet. |
| Second | In the second stage, intermittent back pain occurs, indicating that the destruction of cartilage tissue begins. |
| Third party | The third stage is characterized by changes already visible. An intervertebral hernia can appear, a curvature of the spine often occurs, and in some cases, a bulge grows. |
| Bedroom | The fourth stage is the most difficult, when there is no need to talk about complete healing due to irreversible changes in the skeleton. In addition to the proliferation of osteophytes and displacement of the vertebrae, causing acute pain, problems arise in other organs of the pelvis. Often, the patient fails to control the processes of urination and defecation. |
Treatment of the disease
Osteochondrosis treatment methods are selected depending on the stage of the disease and the intensity of the pain. Conservative treatment brings good results only in the early stages. For example, if osteochondrosis of the lumbar spine was detected early, you can get rid of it with the help of special physical exercises, correction of physical activity and body weight, swimming, taking preparations of the vitamin-mineral complex.
When pain occurs, it is no longer enough. It must be removed together with the cause of its occurrence. Why are medicines, traditional physiotherapy techniques and even alternative medicine methods used? And in the later stages, only surgical treatment is possible.
Physiotherapy
To relieve pain and swelling, increase the effect of medications and reduce your dose, hardware physiotherapy methods are used as:
- ultrasound
- ; laser
- ; magnetic field effect
- ; electrophoresis
- ;
- manual therapy, massage.
Pay attention. Massage helps to relieve muscle spasms, improve blood supply in the area of the affected intervertebral discs and free blood vessels and pinched nerves. This is done only with the help of the hands, but vacuum massage is contraindicated in this disease.
Shockwave therapy
UHT is a relatively new treatment method, the implementation of which uses the most advanced equipment with programmable shock wave dosing and a system for its guidance.
The point is that shock waves destroy osteophytes, restoring the cartilage tissue. But healthy bones in the spine, as well as the main arteries, can also be damaged. Therefore, it is very important to make sure that this technology is well developed in the hospital and that the treatment is carried out by a highly qualified and licensed specialist.
Alternative methods of therapy
In addition to the standard methods of treating lumbar spine osteochondrosis, there are also non-traditional ones. These methods are constantly being studied and are already being applied in many clinics. These mainly include:
- hirudotherapy or leech therapy helps to relieve inflammation and improve blood circulation;
- Acupuncture or acupuncture is an effective way to relieve pain, muscle tension and inflammation. It consists of the introduction of special needles in certain biologically active points of the body;
- ozone therapy - injection of oxygen-ozone mixture. With the correct dosage, this method inhibits the growth of osteophytes and relieves sore muscle tone.
In parallel to these treatment methods or to record the results achieved with their help, a course in kinesiotherapy and therapeutic gymnastics is carried out.
Surgical techniques
If the disease is started and conservative treatment does not improve the patient's condition, they resort to surgical methods. You cannot do without them if after several months of active treatment it has not been possible to relieve pain and improve a person's general condition. And especially in cases where problems such as decreased potency in men, rupture of Organs pelvic organs, numbness of the perineum arose.
- Endoscopic microdiscectomy - removal of an intervertebral disc with a hernia. This is a minimally invasive surgery that relieves compression of the spinal cord or nerve root.
- Laser reconstruction of intervertebral discs can hardly be called an operation. During the procedure, which takes place under local anesthesia, a fine needle is inserted into the affected disc, through which it is irradiated with a laser that stimulates the division of cartilage cells.
- A foraminotomy is an operation to remove the processes from a vertebra or part of a disc, in order to release a compressed nerve.
- Vertebroplasty - the injection of bone cement into the destroyed vertebral tissue to strengthen it.
- Osteotomy - removal of diseased vertebrae and discs with their subsequent replacement by prostheses.
There are other methods that aim to stabilize the vertebrae, decompress them, remove osteophytes, etc. Either requires a long recovery period. After surgical treatment of the spine, the patient should not get up, walk, bend over or undergo physical stress for a long time. This leads to muscle relaxation and partial loss of motor functions, which require support and rehabilitation. Therefore, at the end of the postoperative period, a period of recovery and rehabilitation begins, whose task is to fully restore motor functions and prevent complications in Organs pelvic organs.
At this stage, some of the conservative treatment methods described above are applied, the correct posture is developed, the usual movements are corrected. In this case, the patient is recommended to wear a special corset. Then, an individual series of exercises is developed, which must be performed daily and for life to prevent the disease from recurring.