Non-surgical treatment of lumbar disc herniation

Common manifestations of low back and leg pain: lower back pain, leg pain, numbness, or lower extremity soreness. Common causes of low back and leg pain include: such as lumbar disc herniation, lumbar spinal stenosis, lumbar spinal slippage, and intraspinal tumor. Lumbar disc herniation: persistent lumbar pain is the main cause, which is alleviated in lying position and aggravated by standing. Generally, there is lumbar pain first, followed by radiating pain of the lower limbs. The lower limbs show pain and numbness, mostly radiating to the calves or soles of the feet. Spinal stenosis: The low back pain is more widespread, often with heavy symptoms and few signs. Typical symptoms are lumbago and leg pain after walking one or two hundred meters, numbness and weakness of the lower limbs and even limping, and leg pain that is aggravated when the waist is extended backwards and alleviated by bending forward. According to statistics, the vast majority of patients with lumbar disc herniation are cured by non-surgical treatment, and only 10% to 18% of them need surgery after non-surgical treatment is ineffective. The mechanism of non-surgical treatment is not to restore the degenerated and herniated disc tissue to its original position, but to change the relative position of the disc tissue and the compressed nerve root, or to partially retract it, to reduce the pressure on the nerve root, to release the adhesion of the nerve root, and to eliminate the inflammation of the nerve root. It can be seen that the preferred treatment for patients with lumbar disc herniation is not direct surgery, but after strict non-surgical treatment: including medication, traction, tui-na, and epidural cavity injection therapy. A more advanced treatment currently available is epiduroscopic release of spinal cord and nerve root adhesions and nerve root inflammatory irrigation. Non-surgical treatment involves epidural injections and epiduroscopic spinal cord and nerve root adhesion release and nerve root inflammatory irrigation. Moreover, orthopedic surgeons have little interest in non-operative treatment of lumbar disc herniation on the one hand, and are limited by their specialty on the other. Therefore, patients need to be seen in pain clinics. The epidural lumpectomy technique involves intermittent dilation and irrigation of the epidural cavity with saline, which acts as a volume-expanding release of the adhesion zone; the tip of the fiberoptic endoscopic catheter system is delivered to the adhesion zone that obstructs the visual field by gently rotating the guide tube control knob, and the catheter tip is intermittently turned to release the adhesion zone, and after successful release, therapeutic drugs are injected into the lesion, and opioid drugs are rarely applied. Indications for epiduroscopy: 1. epiduroscopy is indicated for chronic back pain with spinal radiculopathy or spinal radiculitis and ineffective conservative treatment. 2. most patients with nerve root encapsulation due to adherent scar tissue, clinical inflammatory changes and nerve root traction. 3. patients with pain after failed disc surgery. In the past, the pain solution formulas used in the pain department contained hormonal ingredients, so patients were afraid of hormones, and many of them needed 3 to 5 times of treatment, so they were worried about the effect of hormones on their bodies. At present, our department adopts a formula that has been improved many times in the treatment of lumbar pain, except for the first time when we use a small amount of Depo-Provera, which does not contain hormones and is also effective for some patients with lumbar spinal stenosis. The following is about the use of hormones. In addition, a professional pain physician will take into account the patient’s condition, the number of treatments that may be required, and the presence of osteoporosis throughout the entire treatment of a patient to reasonably select the type and dose of hormones, so that side effects caused by the use of hormones will not be caused, and the use of small doses of hormones, even if used daily, as long as the equivalent dose of ≤7.5mg of prednisone per day ( equivalent to 1mg of betamethasone,) which occupies less than 50% of the receptors, there are almost no side effects (such as osteoporosis), and the currently used Depo-Provera is betamethasone dipropionate 5mg per ml and betamethasone sodium phosphate 2mg per ml, and pain physicians will generally only use a quarter of the amount, so the dosage is very small, and it will not cause side effects more than once a week.