Lower Back Pain

Lower back pain is a common problem often caused by overusing or misusing the muscles in the back, degeneration due to aging, or another back condition. At Peachtree Spine, we understand the discomfort and inconvenience of lower back pain. Simple daily movements like flexing, extending, and rotating the body become difficult and create severe tenderness. Our group of specialists can diagnose and target your source of pain with effective treatments in order to help you get back to a healthier and less painful physical state.

Severe Lower Back Pain

Lower back pain is a very common disorder that can affect many people at some point throughout their lifetime. The symptoms of lower back pain will often improve over a short period of time with conservative treatments as simple as over-the-counter anti-inflammatory medications and hot and cold therapy using ice and heat packs. If the pain persists for more than 12 weeks, however, it is considered to be chronic pain, and may require specialized treatments in order to improve. Chronic pain can be attributed to injury or simply the degeneration of the spine due to aging. The spine consists of vertebrae, discs, nerves and the spinal cord which can each be the source of lower back pain. For example, let us consider pain that may result from conditions affecting the spinal discs. A normal disc is composed of a tough outer wall and a soft, jelly-like center known as the nucleus. Sometimes, the outer wall can become weakened and the inner nucleus can push through the wall causing what is referred to as a herniated disc. The material of the nucleus irritates the nerves of the spine and causes lower back pain and even pain down the leg. (This occurs when the herniated discs are located in the lumbar portion of the spine. Alternately, herniated discs located in the cervical portion of the spine can cause upper back pain and arm pain.)

Diagnosing and Treating Low Back Pains

There are many other disorders that can cause lower back pain including the narrowing of the spinal canal, pinched nerve roots, and even damage to the sacroiliac joints where the spine meets the pelvic bones. Thus, it is extremely important to first locate the source of the lower back pain in order to determine the best treatment option. With an extensive knowledge of the anatomy of the spine, physiatrists can often locate the source of pain through a physical examination of the body and its movement, but an MRI or an EMG may be performed to confirm a suspected diagnosis. Even with the vast causes of lower back pain, surgery is rarely necessary as less invasive non-surgical treatment options can often provide relief and help patients return to their normal physical level of functioning. These back pain treatments include spinal injections whereby a strong anti-inflammatory medication and a local anesthetic medication are injected into different areas of the spine, depending on the source of the pain.

The main benefit of spinal injections is that they are able to deliver medicine directly to the source of the pain, unlike medications taken orally that are dispersed throughout the body, which can also cause more side effects. The injections may be sufficient to provide lower back pain relief on their own, but sometimes, in conjunction with the spinal injections, patients are prescribed a physical therapy component to their treatment. The spinal injections may be necessary to allow the patient to achieve relief from the lower back pain that otherwise would prevent them from completing exercises that are used to strengthen back muscles and prevent similar back conditions from occurring again.