Chronic Back Pain: Diagnosis & Treatment for Chronic Back Pain

Living with chronic back pain can be debilitating, but there are effective treatments available. We take a look at the options for those living in constant pain.

Back pain is extremely common and something that most adults will experience at some point in their lives. In fact, it is the second most common reason for a visit to the family doctor. Often caused by a strain or minor injury, it can usually be relieved within a few days or weeks with simple treatment like exercise or pain relief.

The most common cause of chronic back pain is an issue in the spinal joints, discs or in the muscles that support the back, but a further medical evaluation is usually needed to try and determine the exact cause of the pain. It can be disabling and interfere with work, sleep and your ability to enjoy a social life. Living with constant pain can also lead to feelings of frustration, stress and in some people, can lead to depression.

Some people can suffer from axial back pain (or mechanical back pain), meaning it is localized to one area, or it can radiate to one or both legs, which is referred to as lumbar radiculopathy or sciatica.

• Diagnosing back pain

  A proper diagnosis of the cause of chronic back pain requires obtaining a detailed medical history and a physical exam. It usually begins with your doctor asking lots of questions to try and identify the cause, including asking for details on when the pain started, where it is located, any exercise or sport that you do and your family history. Tests, such as X-rays, MRI and CT scans are then performed to get images of the area that may be the source of the pain

• Treatment for back pain

  Back pain that is chronic and disabling requires a multidisciplinary management approach. This will address all aspects of the problem, both physical and mental, to ensure a full recovery. If approaches such as exercise, stretches and physiotherapy don’t offer relief and the pain persists, medications as well as interventional procedures may be considered. Interventional pain procedures are a range of highly effective yet minimally invasive techniques which, for certain patients, can reduce or even eliminate chronic back pain, when other approaches haven’t been successful, offering life changing relief. Procedures include epidural steroid injection, sacroiliac joint injections, radiofrequency ablation RFA to name a few. RFA involves sending electrical signals and heat to the nerve endings supplying the small facet joints of the spine, which can provide up to one year of relief for patients suffering from osteoarthritis of the spine and chronic back pain.

• Cutting edge back pain treatment

  For the first time in the Middle East, patients with chronic back and leg pain following spine surgery now have access to the very latest interventional technique, called Differential Target Multiplexed (DTM) Spinal Cord Simulation (SCS). The procedure can drastically improve the lives of those living with chronic pain following spine surgery. DTM uses impulses to stimulate the spinal cord and is effective in patients who are experiencing pain after surgery. Traditional SCS works to block pain signals before they reach the brain by using an implanted device to send electrical pulses to the spinal cord, by targeting neurons, the cells in our body responsible for pain signals. The DTM SCS, the smallest simulation device available, is revolutionary in that it targets not only neurons, but also glial cell, which scientists now believe play a greater role in the nerve system than previously thought.

Dr. Reda Tolba, Chair of the Interventional Pain Management Center at Cleveland Clinic Abu Dhabi explains, “Spinal Cord Stimulation using DTM technology can be life changing for patients suffering from chronic back and leg pain following spine surgery. Instead of considering pain medications, which they can become dependent on, cutting edge technologies such as DTM SCS can offer tremendous pain relief for selected patients and can help improve their functional and activity levels.”

By targeting two types of cells involved on the chronic pain pathway, something which hasn’t been done before, this type of interventional therapy can give patients far superior back pain relief, with more than 80% of patients reporting a profound reduction in chronic pain.

This novel treatment is available at the Interventional Pain Management Center at Cleveland Clinic Abu Dhabi. The Center is run by a multidisciplinary team of doctors working together with the aim of helping those with chronic pain to return to normal, active lives as quickly as possible. If you suffer from chronic back pain, talk to your doctor today to see if interventional techniques could put an end to your pain.