Size of McHenry Disc Herniation in Canal Is Not That Important
76% of us has a disc herniation. (1) Do 76% of us have back pain right now? Nope! Thank goodness! The presence of a disc herniation on imaging isn’t the chief issue. The concern is whether that disc is producing pain either mechanically (by pressing on a nerve) or chemically (by irritating a nerve). OrthoIllinois Chiropractic figures this out during the all-important physical exam. The MRI and other imaging studies are extras that can help - or distract - the chiropractic back pain treatment approach if the doctor and patient allow it. So let’s not allow it!
PERCENT OF SPINAL CANAL A DISC OCCUPIES DOESN’T MATTER
Some imaging studies or MRI images will illustrate huge discs in back pain sufferers who have not a lot of or no pain while back pain sufferers who are in awful pain may show a minimal disc herniation. It can be frustrating. Luckily, research maintains that size isn’t everything. A research paper reported that there was no correlation of pain and disability with the size of a disc herniation seen on MRI. (2) Another study of 368 patients who had a lumbar disc herniation said that 91.3% of them did not have back surgery within a year. The surgery patients’ discs took up 31.5% of their spinal canal while the non-operative patients’ discs took up 31.2% of their spinal canals. That is not much of a variance. Researchers wrote that this doesn’t predict which patients will fail nonsurgical treatment and need surgery within 2 years after getting a lumbar spine MRI scan. (3) In light of these findings, OrthoIllinois Chiropractic chooses conservative treatment of these disc herniations.
CONSERVATIVE CARE EFFECT ON DISC SIZE
Chiropractors are back pain specialists. Your McHenry chiropractor is the McHenry back pain specialist. Painful disc herniations are accepted at OrthoIllinois Chiropractic as the spinal research shows that, though painful, disc herniations large and small react well to conservative treatment. As a matter of fact, in following up with patients who underwent conservative treatment for their disc herniation, 35% to 100% of the cases showed a reduction in the size of the disc. (4) Two years after conservative care, herniated disc patients had a 16.5% decrease in size. 57% of patients showed a reduction, 40% demonstrated no change in size, and 3% showed a larger herniation. (5) Particularly, conservative treatment of the disc herniation with flexion distraction Cox® Technic produced increases in the measurements of the spinal canal by as much as 28% in area, 17% in height and 7% in width. (6) McHenry back pain sufferers are happy with such improvement in their disc herniations as pain relief results.
CONTACT OrthoIllinois Chiropractic
Listen to the PODCAST with Dr. George Joachim on The Back Doctors Podcast with Dr. Michael Johnson. Dr. Joachim shares the case of a patient with a disc herniation preoducing spinal stenosis that created considerable pain and alteration to her lifestyle which was improved with his use of the Cox® Technic System of Spinal Pain Management.
Schedule your McHenry chiropractic appointment today. Regardless of its size, your disc herniation is in good company and in good hands at OrthoIllinois Chiropractic.
