Men and women of all age groups suffer at some point in life with back and spine problems. It can be back pain for a long period or an injury in the back or spine. In most cases where the problem is not so severe, non-surgical treatments are the preferred choice to cure spine issues, whereas severe and prolonged back pain and spine injury need surgical intervention.

Factors that usually affect the spine are as follows :

• Ageing
• Improper posture
• Structural abnormalities
• Numbness and pain in legs
• Chronic back pain

Non-surgical Treatments

Non-emergency spine cases are managed by pain management, anti-inflammatory medications and physiotherapy etc. Conservative management can be tried for an initial period of 6 weeks to 6 months and if not benefited, patients are recommended for surgical options

Surgical Treatment

Discectomy

In this procedure, the herniated intervertebral disc is removed and the pressure is removed from the compressed nerve.

Laminectomy

In this procedure, the surgeon remove the bony plate on the back of the vertebra, also called the laminae. Lamina is part of the bone that form an arch in the spine. This helps ease pressure on the spinal cord.

Laminotomy

In this procedure, a portion of the vertebral arch that covers the spinal cord is removed. Less bone is removed in this procedure as compared to Laminectomy.

Spinal Fusion

Spinal fusion is a procedure to join two vertebras. Bone grafts are used in this procedure.

Different approaches of spinal fusion are:

• ALIF, TLIF, LIF, PLIF, – where lumbar interbody fusion is used to stabilize spinal vertebrates to avoid movement between the bones.
• Posterior lumbar interbody fusion
• Anterior lumbar interbody fusion
• Transforaminal lumbar interbody fusion
• Lateral lumbar interbody fusion