Herniated Discs

What is a herniated disc?

Your spine consists of bones called vertebrae. These bones are separated by spongy, flat discs. These discs act as shock absorbers and allow your spine to bend. When one of the discs is damaged, it’s called a herniated, ruptured, or slipped disc.

Discs have two main parts: a tough outer layer and a soft gel core. When a disc herniates, the outer layer tears, allowing the inner gel to bulge or leak through the gap. Sometimes the protruding gel breaks off.

The damaged disc puts pressure on the nerve roots in your spine, causing back or neck pain and other unpleasant symptoms.

Herniated discs can be caused by trauma or discitis (an infection in the tissues lining the space around the disc). Herniated discs often happen because of degenerative disc disease. This develops because discs lose their sponginess over the years, and the outer shell weakens.

What symptoms does a herniated disc cause?

Herniated disc symptoms include:

• Shooting pain
• Backache
• Muscle pain
• Muscle spasms
• Reduced range of motion
• Numbness
• Tingling
• Weakness

Depending on where in your spine the disc herniates, you can experience symptoms in your neck, arms, pelvis, and legs. This problem, radiculopathy, is caused by nerve compression.

Herniated discs don’t always cause symptoms. MRI studies indicate that up to 30% of people without back-related symptoms have a herniated disc.

How is a herniated disc treated?

Coastal Spine provides several herniated disc treatments. Your doctor will advise which are the best for you, usually reserving surgery for the most severe or treatment-resistant cases.

Conservative treatment

Anti-inflammatory medication reduces the pain and swelling caused by a herniated disc. Physical therapy can also help. Avoiding activities that aggravate your symptoms and applying ice packs to reduce pain and inflammation can also help.

Interventional pain treatment

Interventional treatments for herniated discs include trigger point injections and epidural steroid injections. If these don’t improve your symptoms, your Coastal Spine doctor might perform radiofrequency ablation. This involves heating selected spinal nerves with radio wave energy to destroy the nerve and its ability to send pain signals to your brain.

Surgery

Surgery is often necessary when no other treatment works or your symptoms are severely disabling. Discectomy removes an entire disc, while microdiscectomy removes just the damaged part of the disc.

Coastal Spine’s skilled surgeons perform advanced herniated disc surgeries like anterior lumbar total disc arthroplasty. They also fuse the treated part of your spine to stabilize it after discectomy.

Call Coastal Spine today or book an appointment online to benefit from the highest quality herniated disc treatment.