Spine & Pain Updates

Division of Pain Management

Monthly News & Updates

July 2021 | Issue 1

Imaging 101

Neck and back pain remain the leading causes of visits to physicians’ offices. X-ray and MRI are important tests to diagnose possible sources of spine pain. X-rays help to find prominent bone issues (fractures, misalignment, arthritis), while an MRI is needed to see problems related to soft tissues (disc, nerve, ligaments).

Most physicians tend to delay testing for neck or back pain early on. The decision is not due to a lack of compassion but based on strong clinical recommendations, backed by years of research. Most episodes of spine pain are self-limiting and resolve within weeks with mild analgesics, home based exercise routine, physical therapy or spinal adjustments. If spine pain is associated with certain concerning symptoms (called red-flags), then early imaging is imperative. These include:

Prior or current history of cancer
Unexplained weight loss
Immunosuppression
Prolonged use of steroids
Intravenous drug use
Urinary tract infection
Pain that is increased or unrelieved by rest
Fever
Significant trauma related to age (e.g., fall from a height or motor vehicle accident in a young person, minor fall or heavy lifting in a potentially osteoporotic or older person or a person with possible osteoporosis)
Bladder or bowel issues

If you or your loved ones are suffering from nagging neck or back pain and have any of these red flags, consider calling our office for an urgent MRI.

Spine Diagnostics

The field of medicine revolves around making a timely diagnosis and initiating a proven treatment plan. No treatment is 100% successful, but correct diagnosis is paramount in achieving better results.

Neck or back pain, along with other symptoms like numbness or weakness, are “hints” about the underlying problem. Physical examination helps to narrow down possible reasons of pain to a handful. Added information from X-rays and MRI gets your doctor closer to the diagnosis.

An MRI is considered a gold standard to find the cause of spinal pain. Interestingly, findings like degenerative or herniated discs are seen 30-35% of the times in normal healthy people who do not suffer from neck or back pain. The odds of making a false diagnosis are high when “abnormal findings” are so common.

Spine Diagnostics is an area of interventional pain medicine where a small dose of novocaine type medication is injected at certain targets to confirm a possible diagnosis. These test injections also carry the risks of false positive or negative responses, but along with the MRI findings, they add to the accuracy of diagnosis.

Certain diagnostic injections carry a high chance of confirming or disproving a potential cause of pain, like diagnostic sacroiliac joint injections or selective nerve root blocks. For more information, consult our interventional spine specialists.

Fun Facts

The average spine has approximately 220 ligaments, 100 joints, 120 muscles and 25 moving individual vertebra

Pain Management Spotlight

We again request our readers to update our contact phone number. If you want to reach Dr. Amit Sharma’s or any of our interventional spine and pain management doctors’ office please call 833-LI-SPINE (833-547-7463).

833-LI-SPINE

Preview

July’s second issue will focus on:

1. Simplify Back Pain — The process of reaching a conclusive cause of back pain.

2. Coccyx or Tail Bone Pain — “pain in the rear”.

Advances in Interventional Spine