A back injury can disrupt all aspects of your life, including sleep, physical exercise, and work. Chronic back pain can lead to mood swings, anger, depression, and anxiety. If left untreated, a back injury can lead to permanent disabilities.
At Georgia Spine & Orthopaedics, we specialize in providing exceptional back injury treatment. Our team of specialists offers a range of treatment options, including pain management techniques such as medications, injections, and nerve blocks. While we prioritize non-invasive approaches, we also perform orthopedic surgery when necessary.
Effective back injury treatment can alleviate pain and enhance your overall well-being and quality of life. Once we diagnose the underlying cause of your back injury, we will create a treatment plan that is catered to your goals.
Let us help you get your life back! Contact us today at 678-929-4494 to book an appointment.
Symptoms of a Back Injury
Symptoms of a back injury can vary in severity from mild to debilitating. Serious back injuries can lead to permanent disability. Therefore, seeking quick treatment is imperative.
Back Pain
Firstly, you will feel pain in your back. The pain may even extend to your hips and pelvic region. Also, the pain can shoot down to your leg. You may experience a burning, shooting, or stabbing sensation in your back. If you sit or stand for long, the pain may get worse.
Tingling and Burning Sensations in Your Back
If you have suffered a back injury, you may feel a tingling and burning sensation in your back. The pain might not be severe. However, it can interfere with your daily activities. You might have suffered spinal damage in the accident. This is why seeking experienced care from our specialists in Georgia is critical.
Swelling in the Affected Area
It is easy to notice some symptoms, such as swelling. Swelling is usually caused by inflammation of tissues. If you sustained a back injury and you notice any swellings in your back, it is crucial to get checked by a medical professional.
Bruising
If you have suffered a back injury, you may notice signs of bruising on your back. A bruise usually occurs as a result of a direct impact to the back. Keep in mind that bruising can indicate an underlying condition.
Reduced Mobility
If you have injured your back, you may experience reduced mobility due to pain and even stiffness in your back. You will, therefore, find it difficult to walk and do your normal chores. You will need to seek treatment to get rid of the pain.
If you are experiencing one or more of these symptoms, do not hesitate to contact Georgia Spine and Orthopaedics by dialing 678-929-4494 today.
Common Types of Back Injuries
Injuries to the back can vary in severity, ranging from mild discomfort to severe back pain. Understanding the different types of back injuries is important for identifying symptoms and seeking appropriate care.
Soft Tissue Injuries
Soft tissue injuries are among the most common back injuries. These occur when tendons, ligaments, or back muscles are strained or sprained. These injuries are often caused by overexertion, sudden movements, or improper lifting. A pulled muscle can result in severe pain and limit your range of motion. Back strains often cause muscle tightness and contribute to a hunched posture.
Massage therapy and other pain relief methods can help alleviate the symptoms of these injuries and promote recovery.
Bulging Disc
A bulging disc is a condition that develops gradually over time, often as a result of wear and tear or repetitive stress on the spine. Spinal discs serve as cushions that protect the spinal canal and absorb shock. When these discs shift out of place, they can irritate nearby nerves.
Symptoms may include numbness, weakness, and severe pain that can radiate to the leg or arm. Low back pain and other symptoms often worsen with standing or sitting for long periods.
Nerve Damage
Bone fragments, bulging discs, and other spinal injuries can compress or damage nerves, leading to radiating pain that extends down the legs, a condition commonly known as sciatica. This can result in muscle weakness, low back pain, and a range of other symptoms, including numbness or tingling.
Spinal stenosis, a narrowing of the spinal canal, can put pressure on the spinal cord and nerves. It most commonly affects the lumbar spine or neck.
Herniated Disc
A herniated disc occurs when the soft, gel-like center of a spinal disc pushes through a crack in its tougher outer layer. This condition places pressure on the spinal canal and surrounding nerves, often leading to severe pain, numbness, or weakness in the back, legs, or arms.
Acute back pain from a herniated disc can be debilitating. Pain relief strategies may include physical therapy, massage therapy, and in severe cases, surgical intervention.
Fractures
Vertebra fractures are fractured or broken bones in your spine. A violent push, an accident, or a fall can cause this type of injury. Spinal fractures can cause severe pain in your back. If you do not seek medical attention immediately, vertebra fractures may damage your spinal cord and cause paralysis.
Spinal Cord Injury
Spinal cord injuries result from damage to the spinal cord itself, often due to trauma, such as a car accident or a fall. These injuries can lead to varying degrees of paralysis and loss of sensation below the site of the injury, impacting motor and sensory functions.
Causes of Back Injuries and Back Pain
Back injuries and back pain can result from various causes, ranging from lifestyle factors to more serious injuries. Below are some of the most common causes:
- Poor Posture: Sitting or standing with improper alignment puts stress on the spine, contributing to lower back pain and muscle strains over time.
- Mechanical or Structural Problems: Issues like herniated discs, bulging discs, or degenerative disk disease can cause back pain and limited mobility.
- Abnormal Curvature: Medical conditions such as scoliosis or kyphosis, which result in an abnormal curvature of the spine, can cause discomfort and lead to back pain.
- Inflammatory Conditions: Chronic inflammation, often due to arthritis or other inflammatory conditions, can cause stiffness, severe pain, and difficulty moving the back.
- Heavy Lifting: Improper lifting techniques or frequent heavy lifting can strain muscles and ligaments.
- Sports Injuries: Activities that involve sudden twists, certain movements, or high-impact forces often result in muscle strains and other back injuries.
- Accidents: Traumatic events, such as car accidents or falls, can damage the spinal cord, vertebrae, or muscles supporting the back.
Risk factors for back injuries include excess body weight, lack of exercise, smoking, aging, and poor ergonomics.
How Will Your Doctor Diagnose Your Back Injury?
Diagnosing a back injury typically involves a combination of physical examination and imaging tests. Doctors will perform a physical examination to assess the range of motion, strength, and sensation in the affected area. During this examination, doctors may also look for signs of inflammation, tenderness, or deformity.
X-rays are often used to check the position of the spinal discs and bones. CT scans provide detailed images of bones, muscles soft tissues. They can help check for spinal compression.
Your doctor may use an MRI scan to get a clearer view of the soft tissues in your back. MRI scans are particularly effective for evaluating soft tissue injuries and nerve compression.
Types of Back Injury Treatments
The best back injury treatment plan for you will depend on the type of injury and how serious it is. We use a variety of pain management techniques.
Laser Therapy
Tissues compressing the spinal nerves are a common cause of back pain. Laser therapy relieves pressure on the spinal nerves and reduces back pain.
Hot/Cold Therapy
Cold therapy helps to decrease swelling and inflammation in the back. Remember, swelling and inflammation are the main causes of compression and pain. Hot therapy, on the other hand, helps to improve the movement of the soft tissues and flexibility. It improves the functionality of soft tissues. Hot therapy can also help reduce pain.
Physical Therapy
If you want to improve the healing process and reduce stiffness in your tendons, muscles, skeletal muscles, and ligaments, you need to do regular exercise. Exercise can help relieve pain. Stretching and abdominal strengthening exercises, for example, can help reduce lower back pain.
A physical therapist can teach you exercises to improve your posture, strengthen your abdominal and back muscles, and increase your flexibility.
Ultrasound Therapy
Doctors use ultrasound therapy to treat soft tissue injuries and spinal cord injuries. There are ultrasound machines that produce vibrations. Doctors rub these machines on the injured area in the back. The vibrations or sound waves help to relieve pain.
Chiropractic Care
Spine misalignment is one of the common causes of back pain. Chiropractors use manual adjustments to improve alignment and alleviate back pain.
Medications
Medications are commonly used to manage pain and inflammation after a back injury. Nonsteroidal anti-inflammatory drugs (NSAIDs) like ibuprofen reduce inflammation and alleviate pain. Muscle relaxants may be used to relieve muscle spasms.
Injections
Injections, such as corticosteroids or numbing medications, can provide targeted relief for back pain. Epidural steroid injections are commonly used to reduce inflammation around spinal nerves, providing temporary relief. Facet joint injections target specific joints in the spine to alleviate pain caused by inflammation or irritation.
Nerve Blocks
Nerve blocks involve the injection of anesthetic or anti-inflammatory medication near specific nerves to block pain signals. These injections can provide targeted relief for conditions like sciatica or facet joint syndrome.
Radiofrequency Ablation
Radiofrequency ablation (RFA) is a minimally invasive procedure used to alleviate chronic back pain. During RFA, a specialized needle is inserted near the affected nerves. Radiofrequency energy is delivered through the needle to the nerves, heating them and disrupting their ability to transmit pain signals.
RFA provides long-lasting pain relief for many patients, often lasting six months to a year or more. It is considered safe and effective.
Kyphoplasty
Kyphoplasty is a minimally invasive procedure used to treat compression fractures in the spine, often caused by osteoporosis or traumatic injury. A surgeon inflates a balloon within the fractured vertebra and then injects bone cement to stabilize the bone and alleviate pain.
Orthopedic Surgery
In cases of severe or persistent back pain that does not respond to conservative treatments, orthopedic surgery may be considered. Procedures such as spinal fusion, laminectomy, or discectomy aim to relieve pressure on nerves, stabilize the spine, or remove damaged tissue.
These surgeries may be considered for conditions like spinal stenosis and herniated discs.
Contact Georgia Spine and Orthopaedics Today!
If you have a back injury, you are probably facing a lot of discomfort. Persistent pain and limited mobility from a hurt back can interfere with your daily activities and lead to feelings of anxiety, stress, and depression. Seeking medical attention can help you recover faster.
At Georgia Spine & Orthopaedics, we are highly trained to treat a variety of back injuries, including bulging discs, herniated discs, sprains and strains, and many more. Our specialists use cutting-edge technology to accurately diagnose the cause of your back pain. Then, we devise a personalized back injury treatment plan for you.
Call us today at 678-929-4494 to learn how we can help you recover from your back injury.