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According to Center for Disease control, Nearly 2.4 million Americans suffer from chronic back pain. The cost to treat back pain directly or indirectly costs approximately $75 billion dollars. American workers suffer from back pain next only to flu, which is debilitating and results in loss of work and income.
Emotional and physical stress is experienced by an individual suffering from chronic back pain. It’s the type of pain that can last for a lifetime, if surgical intervention is recommended by trained physicians. Pain killers, analgesics, and steroidal applications just help in suppressing the symptoms of this chronic condition. Laser laminectomy is the latest and most advanced procedure used to reduce the pain of chronic back pain sufferers. Laminectomy is a procedure which is performed on the vertebra which results in either a partial or complete removal of the lamina. Lamina is the wing like structure / part of the vertebra. Back bone is also called vertebrae in medical terms. The spinal cord traverses through the vertebra.
Spinal stenosis is a condition when patients suffer from severe back pain. Spinal stenosis is a condition, where the affected spinal cord nerves are compressed. The common causes of spinal stenosis are injury, aging or a tumor. The procedure of surgical laminectomy was pioneered by Victor Alexander Haden Horsley in 1887. This procedure attempts to completely or partially remove or shape the spinal disc to treat conditions like herniated disc.
The most commonly observed symptom of patients is chronic low back pain which further leads to immobility and feeling of anguish. The current method of treating the low lumbar back pain caused by herniated discs is by surgery or use of pain killers. An invasive procedure is recommended in order to prevent suffering and emotional stress. The procedure is done under general anesthesia. The patient first needs to be admitted to a hospital and a small incision is made at the back under anesthesia to perform laminectomy.
An alternate procedure to treat herniated discs and spinal stenosis is by Laser laminectomy. Herniated disc is also commonly referred to as “Slipped disc”. Herniation of the disc occurs when inter vertebral disc bulges out and directly affects the nerves around the spine. This results in pain on the left and right side of the low back. The goal of surgical laminectomy is to remove the pressure on the nerves surrounding the spinal cord; this will relieve pain and allow for physical reduction of the protruding lamina. The patients who undergo laminectomy have a long recovery phase after surgery. This may involve pain medication, physical therapy and exercise.
Novel and minimally invasive laser laminectomy is a great approach towards treating patients suffering from back pain. Back pain is an ancient condition and can be traced back to ancient Egyptians and Greek times.
Laser laminectomy involves using a laser to remove part of the nerve or lamina to alleviate the back pain. Houston laser laminectomy can attempt this procedure for herniated discs which in minimally invasive. A slang used in medical terminology is less invasive without undergoing the complications of anesthesia. In a surgical laminectomy the patient is put to sleep and the procedure performed under anesthesia. Surgical laminectomy is invasive and expensive, has risks for recurring back pain which may also affect the neck.
Treatment for back pain is costly, chronic and complicated. These are the three C’s that plague the American workforce in software research and development. American geriatric population is also affected by chronic back pain and consideration should be given to potential treatments such as laser laminectomy.
