What is Back pain?
Back pain or lower back pain can happen for several problems with any part of the interconnected network of spinal nerves, muscles, bones, tendons or discs in the lumber spine.
Some of the typical causes for back pain are:
Although it can happen at any age, back pain, especially lower back pain occurs in people who are in their 40s. Back pain is typically characterized by a localized pattern of discomfort in the lower back area that mostly occurs after an event that culminated in stressing the lumber tissues.
The severity of this condition, depends on a number of issues, which comprises of the degree of the strain and also the resulting spasm of the lower back muscles that occurred owing to the trauma.
Diagnosis and Treatment
Diagnosis of back pain is generally done by the doctors based on the location of the pain and history of the injury. X-ray is usually performed on the patients suffering from this ailment which helps in excluding osteological abnormalities.The most popular treatment for all kinds of back pains or lumber strains consists of resting the back to avoid subsequent injury. Apart from that reconditioning exercises are also prescribed to the patients to strengthen the back muscles along with medications to relieve pain and muscular spasms. Local heat applications are also advised to the back pain patients along with massage which is often done by certified physiotherapists.
What happens when you don't get treated on time :
In rare cases back pain can also be a sign of CES (Cauda Equina Syndrome), which is a condition that requires immediate surgical treatment.
In patients suffering from CES, something compresses their spinal nerve roots, which cause severe pain. As the cauda equine are a bundle of nerve roots which is located in the lumbosacral spine and sends messages to the brain from the feet, legs and pelvic organs, inability to provide a fast treatment, often leads to lasting damage which can lead to incontinency and also permanent paralysis of the legs.
MRI (Magnetic Resonance Imaging) scan is also prescribed at time along with a Myelogram (X-ray of the spinal cord after injecting contrast material into the spine), which aids in pinpointing the pressure point on the spinal nerves or on the spinal cord.
Plantar fasciitis is a common condition that gives rise to heel pain. A thick band of tissue runs across the bottom part of the foot and connects the heel bone to the toes. This leads to inflammation. Those who suffer from plantar fasciitis experience stabbing pain especially when you take the first few steps after waking up in the morning.
As you are up and start moving in the morning, you will feel that the pain decreases. However, after long periods of inactivity or standing in one place the pain might return.
This condition is seen to occur more commonly in runners. Additionally, people who wear improper shoes, lacking adequate support and/or are overweight stand at a greater risk of getting plantar fasciitis.
Few symptoms of plantar fasciitis include-
• Stabbing pain felt at the bottom of the heels
• Pain arising immediately after exercising but not during it
Cause of Plantar Fasciitis-
Normally, the plantar fascia (ligament tissue) can play the role of a shock absorber, mainly a bowstring that supports the arch in the foot. When tension and stress build up on the bowstring, tiny tears can start to crop up within the fascia. Constant tearing and stretching can lead the fascia to become inflamed and irritated. Many times the cause of plantar fasciitis in certain patients is not entirely clear.
What Makes You Susceptible to Plantar Fascia?
Although the condition of Plantar Fascia can arise without any bulletproof reason, there are certain factors that make you more susceptible to it. These include-
• Age - Those who are aged above 40 but below 60 are more prone to getting this condition
• Obesity - Those who are overweight will inadvertently put greater pressure on the plantar fascia
• Exercises- Certain exercises tend to put more pressure on the heels than others. These exercise types include jumping activities, long-distance running, aerobic dance and ballet dance.
• Foot Type - Those who have an arched foot or are flat-footed, or tend to walk in an abnormal manner are at a greater risk of putting pressure on the plantar fascia
• Your Job Type - Teachers and factory workers who tend to be on their feet a lot or have to walk on hard surfaces may put stress on their plantar fascia
Plantar Fasciitis is a condition that needs immediate attention because when left untreated it could develop into chronic pain and thus become a source of constant pain. In order to prevent it from hampering your daily activities ensure to change the way you walk. This will minimize the hip, knee and back problems in the future.
Since the IT boom, we are growing very fast economically and digitally. But somewhere compromising health especially our back and neck, Due to prolonged sitting hour (10-12 hrs) on computer and top of that some of you are travelling to Noida/Gurgaon, again sitting for 2-3 hrs too n fro. This article is all about pains in back, neck, shoulder, forearm and legs with which you may be suffering from, the pain one doesn’t correlate to your work.
“Mr. X doesn’t wear a hard hat to work. He doesn’t lift heavy objects nor does he operate heavy machinery. Actually, Mr. X wears fairly comfortable clothing, and he doesn’t need to exert a lot of physical energy to accomplish his tasks. He sits at his desk from 8 a.m. to 5 p.m., Monday to Friday, and the only machinery he has to operate is a mouse and keyboard. Sitting in his office, Mr. X is generally safe and secure from injury………but still suffers from pain.”
Our bones and muscles make up our musculoskeletal system. As strong as this system might be, overuse of the muscles through repeated movements can put stress on your body, causing a Repetitive Strain Injury (RSI). Other names for RSI include Cumulative Trauma Disorder and Repetitive Motion Injury. Unfortunately, many office jobs require that we perform repetitive motions to fulfil our duties. For this reason, RSIs are the most common type of injury found in the office.
Symptoms of RSIs
The first signs of an RSI may be subtle and mild, and the symptoms may appear long after performing the activity. For these reasons, people often ignore the slight aches and pains, but eventually these slight aches and pains can become serious problems down the road if ignored.
• Dull aching which sometimes severe pain increases as day progresses
• Difficulty in prolonged sitting/standing
• Loss of sensation (numbness), especially at night
• Aches/pains which may be worse at night
• Tingling and burning sensations, ‘Pins and needles’ discomfort
• Morning stiffness
Injury to the spine is very common in office environment because constant sitting (desk job) either working on laptop or desktop, spine (lower back) is at risk. Because sitting causes 150%-200% stress on the back while standing just 100%, sitting with laptop is worse than desktop because of poor posture with a laptop. This constant sitting is just like a small drop of water in a big bucket, over a period of time bucket is filled, water splashes out, that is the time when people experience severe pain. Getting treatment just takes out few mugs of water but that little drop (constant sitting) still coming to the bucket. That means pain may reoccur. So what to do…”..Stop The Little Drop”
HOW TO SAVE BACK & NECK FROM SITTING JOB STRESS
Avoid Prolonged Sitting > 45 MINS - Do not sit more than 45 min at a stretch, get up after 45 mins take 2-5 min walk than sit again
Avoid Forward Bending - Ending forward causes double the stress over neck n back, our head wt is around 5 kg which increases to 30 kg if we bend our neck up to 60 degrees. so keep your head in centre of shoulders. If u want to bend n lift something from lower down than bend from knee and hip as well so that stress on spine is less.
Avoid Heavy Weight Lifting - Keep your back as straight as possible while lifting wt or ask for help while lifting heavy wt.
Full Chair Sitting - Try to sit in office chair with hips at the back of chair and back fully supported with backrest, by this your back is fully supported n slightly backwards tilted , keeping stress low on spine . do not sit half-chair.
Laptop To Desktop - With laptop one has to bend forward and work as in laptop screen and keyboard is so close to each other that you can't work without bending forward. So, dissociate screen from the keyboard by using external keyboard (preferably wireless) and external mouse with laptop stand to keep screen at your eye level.
Holding Mobile Away From Body - So that neck does not bend too much for long, keep neck as straight as possible.
Never Work In Bed Of With Bad Posture - As it causes severe stresses on back and neck
Daily Exercise - Daily exercise of neck and back strengthens muscles so that they can take stresses of sitting
The spinal cord is protected by the 33 bones of the spine as it travels from the brain to lower back, with number of spinal nerve travelling across the spine to reach arms and legs .
To exit from the bony tunnel of the spine itself, the spinal nerves travel through holes in the bones which are separated by discs or shock absorbers. If these nerves are squashed or pinched, this can cause pain, numbness, weakness or loss of function in the limbs ( sciatica).
There are many bones running up and down the spine, each separated by a jelly-like core and tough outer fibrous structure called a disc.
The nerves travel to the left and right of the spine through space called an intervertebral foramen. Either these nerves or the spine itself can be compressed by either further growth of bone, instability of the bone, or bulging or bursting of the disc ( disc prolapse ).
After a thorough history and investigation you may be required to have an XRAY to see bones and spinal alignment , sometimes CT scan or MRI is needed to look more closely at the bone and soft tissue structures ( disc and nerves ) in the spine.
Rest, Medication and Physiotherapy, generally, cure most patients for short term. But most pain can reoccur if your ergonomics (working and sitting posture) is not right. Long-term solution of the problem is Exercise and right posture.
Sometimes surgery is required if pain is severe and not responding to conservative therapy.
Certain types of compression require surgery to prevent nerve damage becoming permanent or irreversible. Surgical options include removing excess bone, removing bulging discs, fusion or stiffening of bones to remove instability or replacing dysfunctional discs.
Pain management begins at home. Of course, your doctor is the expert you need to go to to check the possible causes and treatment methods to alleviate pain. However, sometimes, the pain can be managed well as home as well. For example, it is possible to manage back strain at home with the help of simple remedies. Some of these remedies include the following:
A microdiscectomy is performed on the herniated disc of an individual to relieve the pressure from the spinal nerve root by eliminating the material which is causing the pain. Being minimally evasive in nature, this technique of disectomy is carried out to provide much-needed relief from the pain caused due to a lumbar herniated disc.
The procedure of the micro lumbar discectomy is not very complicated. During the procedure, a small part of the bone which is present over the nerve root or the disc material is taken out for relief. A microdiscectomy is also known as microdecompression which is more effective in leg pain.
Indications For Micro Lumbar Disectomy
It is very much important to understand that micro lumbar discectomy can be very important if the patient is suffering from serious pain and problems. Here are some indications which show that an individual needs such a disectomy:
● Excruciating pain in the affected areas which does not allow the person to work or carry out normal activities that he or she does.
● Inflammation or redness around the area which is caused due to the constant pain.
● When the leg pain is the major thing affecting a person rather than a back pain as well.
● A kind of leg pain which exceeds more than 6 weeks and keeps affecting.
Advantages And Disadvantages
No surgery comes without both sets of advantages and disadvantages. So, micro lumbar discectomy also has both the sides of advantages and disadvantages which you should be knowing about.
Advantages - Micro Lumbar Discectomy is minimally evasive which makes it possible for the patients to undergo much less pain and trauma. In most of the cases, the doctor separates the muscles instead of cutting it. This helps to minimize the trauma and helps to heal in a better manner. The removal of the muscle is therefore done more precisely giving the patients a quicker way to recover and carry on with their normal activities.
Disadvantages - Even though the risk and complications are reduced because of the minimally evasive nature, there are certain risks associated to it. Postoperative infections can be a real risk when a person goes through a micro lumbar discectomy. A dural tear can occur when incisions are made around the area which is affected. Although it is very rare, but nerve damages can also be a risk in the case of a lumbar discectomy.
So as you can see that the micro lumbar discectomy is a brilliant way to help an individual who is suffering from herniated disc and immense leg pain rather than back pain. You must always visit a reputed and recognized surgeon to make sure that you undergo a safe and sound treatment for the problem you are facing. Any kind of wrong treatment can cause a serious damage to your lifestyle.
Splenectomy is an operation conducted to remove the spleen. The spleen plays a vital role in building immunity against bacterial infections, located in the uppermost area of the left hand side of the abdomen, just below the diaphragm. There are some specific requirements with regard to the immunizations as well as blood work that might need to be completed before this surgery takes place.
Why is Splenectomy need to be performed?
There are a number of chronic illnesses like Hereditary Spherocytosis or Idiopathic Thrombocytopenic Purpura, which make it a necessity to get a child’s spleen removed. Though it is a rare case but still any kind of trauma to the spleen along with uncontrolled bleeding can create a very serious situation, wherein an emergency might arise to get the spleen removed immediately.
Immunization of child before the operation
Before the surgery of Splenectomy is conducted, immunizations are given to children as a preventive against some specific kinds of infections that are most common for patients to arise after having undergone the surgery of Splenectomy.
How is the surgery performed?
The paediatric surgeon, who performs the surgery, need not require making a large incision for going about the process of operation. In most of the instances, a splenectomy is performed in the following manner, which includes:
Essentials after the Surgery
After the surgery has taken place and the child returns home after a couple of days, there are certain essentials that require to be kept in mind:
In case you have a concern or query you can always consult an expert & get answers to your questions!
What is Back pain?
Diagnosis and Treatment
What happens when you don't get treated on time :