This website is designed to educate the patient about the medical treatment options available for those people whose back pain fails to respond to conservative therapy. The discussion will mainly center on pain caused by disc disease, since this is by far the most common cause of chronic and severe back pain. The discussion will include not only back pain, but also neck, arm, and leg pain caused by disc disease. After examining the information on this website the consumer will have a conceptual framework which will allow rational selection of medical treatment and avoidance of ineffective or unnecessary treatment options.
Topics included: low back pain, sciatica, neck pain, cervical radiculopathy, lumbar radiculopathy, cervicogenic headache, disc herniation, disc protrusion, disc extrusion, laminectomy, failed back surgery syndrome, back surgery, herniated disc, microdiscectomy, degenerative disc disease, intervertebral disk, slipped disc, discogenic pain, IDET, spinal fusion, laminotomy, acupuncture, chiropractors, physical therapy, spine surgeons, epidural steroids, epidural corticosteroid injections, and back pain treatments.
Back pain is an almost universal experience, costing in excess of $20 billion per year in the United States for direct medical expenditures alone. Direct medical expense does not include the cost of lost work, lost salary, and lost productivity which invariably accompanies serious back pain episodes.
Most people experiencing acute back pain will recover with conservative treatment: rest, ice or heat, oral anti-inflammatory medications, gradual resumption of exercise, and physical therapy when needed.
Patients with severe pain, fever, neurologic dysfunction such as weakness or numbness, or failure of the pain to resolve will need to consult with their primary care physician. Back pain can be a symptom of a diverse variety of medical disorders, including peptic ulcer, gallbladder disease, kidney stones, kidney infection, infection of the spine, heart or blood vessel disease (dissecting aneurysm), or even cancer (see Table 1). For this reason evaluation by a physician is necessary.
Targeted Anti-Cytokine Therapy®
Nonsteroidal Anti-Inflammatory Medications
Alternative Treatments: Acupuncture, Chiropractic,
Yoga, Aquatherapy, etc.
The AHCPR Study
The Agency for Health Care Policy and Research (AHCPR) was established in December 1989 to enhance the quality, appropriateness, and effectiveness of health care services and access to these services by the federal government. A federal panel consisting of leading medical specialists, chiropracters, osteopaths, and others was convened to help develop guidelines for the treatment of back pain. This 23 member multidisciplinary panel in 1994 released a landmark study in which they evaluated over 10,000 published studies and reached conclusions regarding the effectiveness of various treatments for acute low back pain of less than 3 months duration.
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