Orange County Personal Injury Lawyer
Lumbar Herniated Disc
A lumbar herniated disc is a relatively popular operation to relive pain and pressure in the back. A herniated disc is a disc in the lumbar section of the backbone is located in the lower back. It will affect the vertebrae numbered L-1 – L-5. These vertebrae often cause back pain because they carry most of the weight of the body. They are also the ones used in carrying and lifting and when you don’t use your legs to lift, this is the area that gets stressed.
In the backbone, the vertebrae each hold a spinal fluid which fills the discs. A herniated disc is one that has cracked or degenerated in some way and the spinal fluid has run out; it has released the inner core of the bone. The fluid that has leaked out of a lumbar herniated disc can cause added pain. Because of its location, L-1 = L-5, this disc will put pressure on the nerve stem called the sciatic and is extremely painful. The pain affects what is known as the sciatica, and then this pain shoots down the legs. About 90% of disc herniations will occur here.
There are a few ways of handling a lumbar herniated disc. Typical back surgery will take about 6=8 weeks for recovery. Before this surgery and In order to expedite recovery, there are a few non-surgical methods to try. Physical therapy, chiropractic manipulations, NSAIDs or non-steroidal anti-inflammatory drugs, oral steroids and cortisone injections alone or in conjunction with one another will increase mobility and reduce pain.
The latest method of relieving the pain from the collapsed vertebrae is Microdiscectomy (micro decompression) back surgery. This is done on an outpatient basis, or a one night hospital stay. This surgery removes a portion of the vertebrae that is touching on the nerve or the other side of the bone, so that it no longer touches. Microdiscectomy on the lumbar herniated disc is successful 95% of the time with a skilled surgeon. The success rate of the surgery is so high because the main part of the vertebrae is left intact.
Treatment for a patient with a lumbar herniated disc is not standardized treatment. Every case is individualized and some may refer to the same case differently. Different names for the same pain may be a pinched nerve, bulging disc, slipped disk or a ruptured disc and the treatment depends a lot on how long the pain has been there. If you’ve tried the non-surgical methods and still have the same pain, it is time for you to consider the surgical methods. This would mean traditional back surgery or the more modern Microdiscectomy. These are the alternatives for those who are having the severe pain. If you are having a mild amount of pain, down through your leg or so, then try another method of non-surgical treatment. You never want to take back or neck surgery unless it is the last resort.