A 45-Year-Old Man With Low Back Pain and a Numb Left Foot

Article Abstract:

Sciatica represents a treatment challenge for many physicians. Sciatica is a pain that radiates down the legs and may be due to herniation through a spinal disk. About 4 million Americans are diagnosed with spinal disk disorders each year. If the spinal nerves are compressed, pain, numbness and muscle weakness may result. About 70% of sciatica patients will recover naturally within several weeks without treatment. Exercise, chiropractic manipulation, and corticosteroids may be beneficial. Studies have shown that surgery is only effective in 60% of patients overall. Only patients in pain should be treated surgically, and careful patient selection could improve the success of surgical treatments. Physicians should chose patients who are not likely to respond to non-surgical treatments.

Care and treatment, Spinal diseases, Sciatica, Intervertebral disk displacement, Intervertebral disk

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Preempting the memory of pain

Article Abstract:

Effective pain control prior to a surgical procedure may reduce pain after surgery. Research on the physiology of pain suggests that painful stimuli may induce a hypersensitive state in the spinal cord that continues after the painful stimuli is removed. This has important implications in the control of postoperative pain. Preemptive analgesia is a technique in which anesthetic drugs are applied near the spinal cord or as regional nerve blocks to prevent central nervous system sensation of pain. Preemptive analgesia may reduce pain and improve function long after surgery.

Health aspects, Editorial, Methods, Prevention, Physiological aspects, Pain, Peridural anesthesia, Epidural anesthesia, Analgesia, Pain, Postoperative, Postoperative pain

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