Page 22 - MedicaWell No3

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22 medica welll

in cancer patients as well as neuralgic pain, spinal canal stenosis, scoliosis, lumbar spondylolisthesis and low back
pain persisting after lumbar hernia surgery.

It is an advantageous method, as it can be applied under local anesthesia in a short time (3 to 5 minutes) on a special
surgical table using a special imaging device at operating room conditions and the patient can be discharged to
home 1 hour after the injection. Although the term “steroid agent” fears patients, it causes no side effect as it is
used at very small concentrations, excluding some very rare conditions. Patients can engage in routine work life
following 1-day resting at home.

ADJUVANT TREATMENTS FOR PERSISTENT LOW BACK PAIN

Low back pain is the second most common disease, may relieve some complaints, but steroid agents in injec-
following heart diseases, that causes labor loss. There- tion or pill form cannot be substantially delivered to
fore, studies are conducted not only on diagnosis-based cartilages, as there is no vascularization in the torn carti-
treatment, but also on methods that maximize the com- lage. Cartilage tears to the lateral side by 30%. Transfo-
fort of life. raminal steroid injection provides good outcomes in
those patients. In this method, steroids are directly
Low back pain and associating radicular symptoms instilled to the diseased site and exert effects.
(pains that refer to foot) are one of the most serious
medical and socioeconomic problems in the present Transforaminal epidural steroid injection is, therefore, an
day. Low back pain occurs in 80-85% of adults before important option that is considered among methods
the age of 50 years. While 90% of patients with acute preferred for patients with no response to the medical
low back pain recover completely within several weeks, treatment. Moreover, it is also a good method for infec-
low back pain persists longer than 4 to 6 weeks only in tious neural root diseases, such as Herpes Zoster and
10% of patients. For long-standing pains, one should edema and inflammation secondary to tumoral invasion
considered lumbar disc hernia, tumor, facet joint pain,
hip joint disorders, lumbar spondylolisthesis and
psychological problems.

The first step of conservative treatment includes exer-
cises that aim relieving the pain and passive methods
that include resting and avoidance from lifting heavy
objects. For medication treatment, pain killers and
anti-edema agents as well as muscle relaxants provide
significant help. A long-term measure is loss of weight.
The condition persists in a group of patients and neither
surgery nor medication treatment is sufficient whatso-
ever the diagnosis is. The major one of those conditions
is lumbar hernia.
LUMBAR HERNIA AND TRANSFORAMINAL INJEC-
TION
In practice, lumbar hernia is the most common cause of
the low back pain. The cartilage disc located between
two vertebras ruptures and bulges into the spinal canal
and compresses the nerves that innervate legs. The
result is a low back pain followed by foot pain. For
lumbar hernia cases that are easily diagnosed with MRI,
there is no definitely curative medicine. Steroid agents