Morning June 22nd, a Seminar in Spine Surgery "Herniated Discs: Surgical & Nonsurgical Options", Spine specialists gave updates on effective methods of prevention and treatment of this disease and concludes that many treatments harm more than they heal, and are unnecessarily expensive for the medical care system.
Herniated Disc in the neck shared by Dr. Vo Van Si, Spine Surgeon and Herniated Disc in the lower back (lumbar) area shared by Dr. Huynh Hong Chau, neurosurgeon
Questions and Answers on Herniated Discs
Herniated Disc in the neck shared by Dr. Vo Van Si, Spine Surgeon
Question
I have been diagnosed with degenerative lumbar spine. My MRI result shows that my spine is curved. When I practice morning exercise, the stooping movements make my back very painful. Please advise me.
Answer
When coming to the age of 30 and older, your joints shall begin to age, especially in women, who start to have menopause. They are the ones suffering the most severe spinal degeneration. The first reason is the decrease in the density of osteoporosis. The second reason is because of the spinal degenerative disc. When aging, our whole body degenerates thoroughly. Your skin will degrade and wrinkles appear. To sum up, when the spine is degenerated, all of the muscles will strengthen to sustain the spine. In a long time, this will make spine degenerate. There are 2 types of degeneration. The first type is degeneration causing pain. The second type is due to structural scoliosis. As you age, you should limit your bowing or backward movements as this will put lots of pressures on the discs. If you don’t have hernia, these movements will cause. If you have a mild hernia, these will cause a severe hernia. If you stretch your back and there is no pain. That means you are fine. If you stretch your back and it’s painful, then due to damaging the back ligament, you should limit your movements for it to heal.
Question
I have a 16-year-old daughter who has been suffering pain in her buttocks spreading to the waist. The MRI scan result showed that the L5 vertebra is slipped at level 2. Her treating doctor said that her bone has not developed yet so she should wait until she is 20 years old, to take MRI scan again. Can you consult more about this case? Should she get surgical treatment for that specific problem?
Answer
The vertebral slide does not need to do surgery. First of all, this happens because of the god’s creation. Surgeries only need when it can cause paralysis for her. Other reasons for surgeries can be the vertebral slippage cause hunchback, making the girls looking lack of aesthetics. If the patient is healthy and works normally, we don’t have to do surgery.
Event participants
Question
Our neck vertebra has 7 pieces. C4-5 has a disc and it can make us feel hurt, so how about C1-2? They don’t have any disk, so can it cause hurt?
Answer
There is no disc in C1-2. But it has cartilage at C1-C2. The articular cartilage don’t have nerves, so you can never feel hurt. However, C1-C2 has its reason to be so, because it's in charge of moving, rotating the neck. On the other hand, the spine area with the intervertebral disc is a semi-movable joint, to keep our bodies from falling apart.
Health assessment and consultation with Dr. Hong Chau and Dr. Van Si.
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