Back Pain and Degenerative Disc Disease

Back pain can come in many forms and affect individuals in different ways. Most common sources of back pain include "slipped discs", pinched nerves, and degenerative spine disease. These back pain issues can spread to other parts of the body, stemming from the spine and shooting down the lower back to the leg, or from the neck down to the arm.

Back pain can cause significant loss of quality of life as physical activity is limited and patients are no longer free to do the things they love. Specialty Orthopaedics is Westchester's premier orthopedic group with a subspecialty in spine and scoliosis surgery. Specialty Orthopaedics utilizes innovative surgical techniques such as minimally invasive surgery, arthroscopy, and robotic assisted surgery.

Depending on where nerves are pinched, different pains can occur. A cervical herniated disc can cause pain in the arms as well as weakness or numbness. Lumbar herniated discs cause discomfort and sharp pains in the leg, ankle or foot as well as weakness or numbness. With a lumbar herniated disc, leg pain is usually worse when sitting. Degenerative disc disease is commonly referred to as arthritis of the back, and is a very painful disorder. Read more about degenerative disc disease.

Degenerative disc disease goes by a few names: degenerative disc disorder, degenerative spine disease as well as "arthritis of the back." Simply put, degenerative spine disease is a deterioration of the lower back disks and causes great pain to sufferers. As individuals age, the spine deteriorate and cause vertebral bodies to collapse onto one another, causing compressed or pinched nerves.

Symptoms

Symptoms of degenerative spine disorder include low back pain, neck pain and a great reduction in quality of life. Some problems associated with degenerative disc disease include slipped discs (disc protrusion), herniated discs, pinched nerves, torn disc (disc tear), or collapsed disc. Spine Surgery Specialists of Westchester Treatment options for degenerative disc disease include conservative as well as surgical procedures. Specialty Orthopaedics group will only suggest surgical procedures if indicated. The surgical procedures include decompression, decompression & posterolateral fusion, Anterior Lumbar Interbody Fusion (ALIF), Posterior Transforaminal Interbody Fusion, and disc replacement. Read more about degenerative disc disease.

Dr. Zelicof and the Spine Surgery Specialists of Specialty Orthopaedics are fellowship-trained in spine orthopaedic surgery, sports medicine and joint replacement. Visit Westchester Specialty Orthopaedics to get more information on treatment options from some of the Best Doctors of New York.