Lumbosacral pain is mostly seen in middle-aged and elderly people and affects people’s daily life. In addition to lumbar disc herniation, the other biggest factor causing lumbosacral pain is lumbar spondylolisthesis! Let us have a comprehensive understanding of lumbar spondylolisthesis
1.What is lumbar spondylolisthesis?
The normal human lumbar vertebrae are neatly arranged, if, due to congenital or acquired reasons, one of the lumbar vertebrae slips forward relative to the adjacent lumbar vertebrae, that is, lumbar spine slippage, mostly seen after the age of 50, women are about three times more than men, L4 vertebrae mostly, followed by L5 vertebrae, the degree is generally within 30%.
2.What are the causes of lumbar spondylolisthesis?
(1) congenital factors (at birth): the lumbar spine has vertebral body and vertebral arch ossification center during development, each side of the vertebral arch has two ossification centers, one of which develops into the upper articular synapse and vertebral arch root, and the other develops into the lower articular synapse, vertebral plate and half of the spinous process, if the two do not heal, it will lead to congenital isthmus collapse disconnection, causing lumbar spine slippage; in addition, it can also be due to the upper sacrum or L5 vertebral arch development abnormalities and produce slippage.
(2) Chronic strain injury: from the biomechanical point of view, when the human body is standing, the lumbar spine is heavily weighted, resulting in forward displacement of the force acting on the isthmus where the bone is weak, resulting in chronic injury due to long-term repeated action.
(3) degenerative factors: long-term incorrect sitting and lying, causing spinal imbalance, making the lumbar spine unstable, thus degenerating the intervertebral disc, intervertebral instability, anterior longitudinal ligament relaxation, and gradually slipping.
3, the main symptoms of lumbar spine slippage
Here, not all slippage has symptoms, there are generally the following main symptoms after the appearance of lumbar slippage.
(1) Lumbosacral pain: the pain is mostly dull in nature, and a few patients have caudal pain, which is aggravated by standing, bending and exertion, and alleviated after lying in bed;
(2) Sciatic nerve involvement: when slippage occurs, the lumbar 5 or sacral 1 nerve roots are stretched, manifesting as radiating pain, numbness and pain in the lower limbs, and the symptoms may appear on both sides or only unilaterally;
(3) intermittent claudication: if the slippage combined with lumbar spinal stenosis, this symptom can appear; fourth, the cauda equina nerve involvement symptoms: when the slippage is serious, the cauda equina nerve involvement can appear lower limb weakness, urinary and fecal incontinence and other symptoms.
4, how to determine whether there is lumbar spondylolisthesis?
In the lumbar examination, the affected vertebral spinous process at the pressure pain, can be touched on a spinous process forward, and the formation of local step feeling; according to the X-ray imaging examination can clarify the degree of slippage, and according to the imaging for the degree of slippage is divided into four degrees, that is, the upper edge of the lower vertebral body is divided into four equal parts, and according to the degree of slippage is divided into the following four degrees: 1 degree: refers to the vertebral body forward sliding does not exceed 1/4 of the sagittal diameter of the middle of the vertebral body 2 degrees: more than 1/4, but not more than 2/4; 3 degrees: more than 2/4, but not more than 3/4; 4 degrees: more than 3/4 of the sagittal diameter of the vertebral body.
5.How to treat the symptoms of lumbar spondylolisthesis
According to the degree of lumbar spondylolisthesis, surgical treatment and conservative treatment can be used, however, the author reviewed a lot of literature, not all lumbar spondylolisthesis need to be treated, in the lumbar spondylolisthesis accompanied by lumbar pain before considering treatment, clinically the most common conservative treatment, the main way for Chinese medicine massage treatment, manipulation correction and guidance training, Chinese medicine internal use and other means, the effect is very can.
6.How can we avoid lumbar spondylolisthesis to the greatest extent in our daily life?
1, regardless of men and women, should wear a belt
The belt is first of all, in order to make the pants do not slack, only in the waist tied a tight belt, followed by the similarities with the “belt vein” in Chinese medicine, the body’s other meridians are up and down longitudinally, only the “belt vein” laterally around a circle, as if the vertical The longitudinal meridians are tied with a rope, so the belt is indirectly maintain the “belt vein” to increase the core stability of the waist and abdomen.
2, the correct sitting, lying, standing posture
Whether sleeping, standing or sitting, improper posture, the biomechanics of the waist will change greatly, leading to changes in internal and external stability, and eventually slowly induce the occurrence of slippage, which is the greatest load on the waist when sitting, the most obvious biomechanical changes, so avoid incorrect sitting posture (sofa, low bench, etc.).
3, for women, the height of high-heeled shoes to be reasonable
Wearing high heels for a long time will make the abdomen and pelvis tilt forward, aggravate the strain on the lumbar muscles and ligaments, trigger muscle relaxation, and cause internal instability of the lumbar spine, therefore, it is recommended that the heel height be controlled within 3CM.
Since daily behavior patterns affect the structure of our spine, and structural factors determine the functional state, it is especially important to have the correct behavior patterns, lifestyle.