Pain in the lower back plagues many people, regardless of age and occupation. Loaders and office workers, young mothers and retired gardeners, writers and even athletes suffer. With any of them, pathological changes in the bone and cartilage tissues of the vertebrae can occur, which lead to compression (compression) of the roots of the nerve spine, which leads to severe pain.
However, 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 an 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, which is responsible for their plasticity and is a source of tissue nutrition with the necessary micro-elements. With prolonged negative impact, the fiber ring of the intervertebral discs loses its elasticity and density and then breaks, which leads 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 are overgrown with an incorrectly distributed load with osteophytes - growth of bone tissue. They also cause pain and limit movement of the spine, which makes the problem worse.
That is, the disease most often occurs with such loads on the spine that are incorrectly distributed or stereotyped - are monotonous and repeat themselves regularly.
Causes of occurrence
Don't assume that just vigorous physical activity or a sedentary lifestyle that weakens the muscle framework will lead to osteochondrosis of the lumbar spine. This also happens to very active people who play sports or work in their summer house every day. If their movements are monotonous (lifting the barbell, digging the floor), then pressure appears on the same points, in the area of which the cartilage tissue is gradually destroyed.
There are other reasons as well. Among them:
- violation of calcium metabolism in the body;
- Overweight or its severe fluctuations in any direction during a strict diet, pregnancy, a sharp change in the level of hormones;
- spinal injury or curvature (scoliosis);
- severe one-off hypothermia or regular exposure to cold;
- depressive states, stress;
- constant physical overload;
- bad inheritance.
Pay attention to it. Any strict diet based on the use of a product or a critical reduction in caloric intake leads not only to severe weight loss, but also to a lack of valuable trace elements in the body. It's bad for muscles and bones too.
Symptoms
Osteochondrosis is rarely detected in time because it is asymptomatic in the early stages. More specifically, there are symptoms that are difficult to relate to spinal problems. Therefore, they are most often discovered by chance during a comprehensive examination for other health problems.
There are four stages in disease development. Let us describe the symptoms of each.
| Level | Description |
|---|---|
| First | In the first phase, the sweating processes are disturbed, a person notices general malaise and rapid fatigue. Some patients speak of a previously unusual chilliness of the feet. |
| Second | In the second stage, intermittent back pain occurs, which indicates that the destruction of the cartilage tissue is beginning. |
| Third | The third level is characterized by changes that are already visible. An intervertebral hernia can occur, there is often a curvature of the spine, and in some cases a hump grows. |
| Fourth, | The fourth stage is the most difficult when there is no need to talk about a complete healing due to irreversible changes in the skeleton. In addition to the proliferation of osteophytes and the displacement of the vertebrae, which cause acute pain, problems arise in other organs of the pelvis. Often the patient ceases to control the processes of urination and bowel movements. |
Disease treatment
Methods of treating osteochondrosis are selected depending on the stage of the disease and the severity of the pain. Conservative treatment only brings good results in the early stages. For example, if osteochondrosis of the lumbar spine was detected at the beginning, you can get rid of it with the help of special physical exercises, correction of physical activity and body weight, swimming and taking vitamin-mineral complex preparations.
If pain occurs, this is no longer enough. It must be removed along with the cause of its occurrence. Why are drugs, traditional physiotherapy techniques, and even alternative medicine methods being used? Only surgical treatment is possible in later stages.
Physiotherapy
To relieve pain and swelling, to increase the effect of drugs and to reduce their dose, the following hardware physiotherapy methods are used:
- ultrasound;
- laser;
- magnetic field effect;
- electrophoresis;
- manual therapy, massage.
Pay attention to it. Massage helps relieve muscle spasms, improve blood flow to the affected intervertebral discs, and release pinched vessels and nerves. This is done only with the help of the hands, but vacuum massage is contraindicated in this disease.
Shock wave therapy
UHT is a relatively new method of treatment, the implementation of which uses the most advanced devices with programmable dosage of shock waves and a system for their guidance.
The point is, shock waves destroy osteophytes and restore cartilage tissue. But healthy bones of the spine and the main arteries can also be damaged. Therefore, it is very important to ensure that this technology is well developed in the hospital and that the treatment is carried out by a highly qualified and licensed specialist.
Alternative therapy methods
In addition to the standard methods of treating osteochondrosis of the lumbar spine, there are also non-traditional ones. Such methods are constantly being studied and are already being used in many clinics. These mainly include:
- Hirudotherapy or leech therapy helps with inflammation and improves blood circulation;
- Acupuncture, or acupuncture, is an effective way to relieve pain, muscle tension and inflammation. It consists in the introduction of special needles into certain biologically active points of the body;
- Ozone therapy - injection of an ozone-oxygen mixture. With the correct dosage, this method inhibits the growth of osteophytes and relieves painful muscle tone.
Parallel to these treatment methods or to the recording of the results achieved with their help, a course of kinesitherapy and therapeutic gymnastics is carried out.
Surgical techniques
If the disease begins, and conservative treatment does not relieve the patient's condition, then resort to surgical methods. You can not do without them if after several months of active treatment it was impossible to relieve pain and improve a person's general condition. And especially in cases when there were problems such as decreased potency in men, disorder of the pelvic organs, numbness of the perineum.
- Endoscopic microdiscectomy - removal of a herniated disc. This is a minimally invasive surgery that relieves compression of the spinal cord or nerve root.
- The laser reconstruction of intervertebral discs can hardly be described as an operation. During the procedure, which takes place under local anesthesia, a thin needle is inserted into the affected disc, through which it is irradiated with a laser that stimulates the division of cartilage cells.
- The foraminotomy is an operation to remove the processes of a vertebra or part of a disc that aims to release a pinched nerve.
- Vertebroplasty - the injection of bone cement into the destroyed vertebral tissue to strengthen it.
- Osteotomy - removal of diseased vertebrae and intervertebral discs with subsequent replacement with prostheses.
There are other methods of stabilizing the vertebrae, decompressing them, removing osteophytes, etc. Each of them requires a long period of recovery. After surgical treatment of the spine, the patient should not stand up, walk, bend over or be subjected to physical stress for a long time. This leads to muscle relaxation and partial loss of motor functions that require support and rehabilitation. Therefore, at the end of the postoperative period, a recovery and rehabilitation period begins, the task of which is to fully restore motor functions and prevent complications in the pelvic organs.
At this stage, some of the methods of conservative treatment described above are used, correct posture is developed, and habitual movements are corrected. In this case, the patient is recommended to wear a special fastening corset. After that, an individual set of exercises is created that should be done daily and for life to prevent the disease from relapsing.