Back Pain Care
Careful evaluation and treatment to ease the degree of your pain.
Back Pain Treatment in Kenya
Back pain lives with you every day. It includes lower back pain, middle back pain, upper back pain, or low back pain with sciatica.
This kind of pain can be recurring and incredibly distracting, preventing people from performing and enjoying everyday tasks and activities.
When back pain becomes disabling and interferes with your everyday life, Orthobridge Orthopedic Center in Kenya offers expert evaluation, diagnosis, and treatment.
We take a comprehensive, collaborative patient-centered approach to caring for patients with back pain.
Our team of joint diseases, sports medicine, and fracture care specialists in Nairobi, Kenya review each case to determine the best course of action and to develop a custom treatment plan tailored to meet your needs.
Types of Back Pain
Back pain can come on suddenly and last less than six weeks (acute), which may be caused by a fall or heavy lifting.
Back pain that lasts more than three months (chronic) is less common than acute pain. It often develops without a specific cause that your doctor can identify with a test or imaging study.
- Mechanical: It is the most prevalent type with the largest incidence. It can be caused by spine injury, intervertebral discs issues, or damage to soft tissues.
- Degenerative: Commonly related to osteoporotic compression fractures, spinal stenosis, joint osteoarthritis, and degenerative disc disorder.
- Inflammatory: It may be a part of an acute inflammatory process, such as ankylosing spondylitis or sacroiliitis.
- Oncologic: Potential causes are damage to the spine, marrow cancer, or nerve compression.
- Infectious: It is caused by spine infections, epidural sores, or muscular/soft tissue ulcers.
Signs and symptoms associated with back pain
- Muscle ache
- Shooting or stabbing pain
- Pain that radiates down to your leg
- Limited flexibility or range of motion of the back
- Chronic ache in the middle or lower back, especially after sitting or standing for extended periods
- In rare cases, back pain can signal serious medical problems if the symptoms; causes new bowel or bladder problems, is accompanied by fever, follows a fall, blow to your back, or other injuries.
Common causes of back pain
Common conditions linked to back pain include:
- Muscle or ligament strain- Repeated heavy lifting or a sudden awkward movement may strain back muscles and spinal ligaments.
- Bulging or ruptured discs- Discs act as cushions between the bones in your spine.
The soft material inside a disk can bulge or rupture and press on a nerve. However, you can have a bulging or ruptured disk without back pain. - Arthritis– Osteoarthritis can affect the lower back. In some cases, arthritis in the spine can lead to a narrowing of the space around the spinal cord, a condition called spinal stenosis.
- Skeletal irregularities- Back pain can occur if your spine curves abnormally.
- Scoliosis, a condition in which your spine curves to the side, also may lead to back pain, but generally only if the scoliosis is severe.
- Osteoporosis- Your spine’s vertebrae can develop compression fractures if your bones become porous and brittle.
Preventing back pain
By improving your physical condition, learning and practicing proper body mechanics can help to keep your back healthy and strong.
- Regular low-impact aerobic activities or exercises — those that don’t strain or jolt your back — can increase strength and endurance in your back and allow your muscles to function better. Walking and swimming are good choices.
- Abdominal and back muscle exercises (core-strengthening exercises) help condition these muscles so that they work together for your back. Flexibility in your hips and upper legs aligns your pelvic bones to improve how your back feels.
- Maintain a healthy weight since being overweight strains back muscles. If you are overweight, trimming down can prevent back pain.
Diagnosis of Back Pain
If you see your doctor for back pain, he or she will examine your back and assess your ability to sit, stand, walk and lift your legs.
The assessments help determine where the pain comes from, how much you can move before pain forces you to stop, and whether you have muscle spasms.
They will also help rule out more-serious causes of back pain. Your doctor may request some tests in order to know what kind of treatment to apply.
These tests include:
X-rays: these images show the alignment of your bones and whether you have arthritis or broken bones.
MRI or CT scans: can generate images that may reveal herniated disks or problems with bones, muscles, tissue, tendons, nerves, ligaments, and blood vessels.
Blood tests: to help determine whether you have an infection or other condition that might be causing your pain.
Bone scan: In rare cases, your doctor may use a bone scan to look for bone tumors or compression fractures caused by osteoporosis.
Nerve studies: (electromyography, or EMG). This is a test that measures the electrical impulses produced by the nerves and the responses of your muscles. This test can confirm nerve compression caused by herniated disks or narrowing of your spinal canal (spinal stenosis).
Non – Invasive Treatment options for back pain
Most acute back pain gets better with a few weeks of home treatment such as the use of heat or ice and change of posture. In most cases, bed rest is not recommended.
Medical Options
If home treatments are not working after several weeks, your doctor might suggest stronger medications or other therapies.
Depending on your type of back pain, your doctor may recommend the following medication:
- Over-the-counter (OTC) pain relievers
- Muscle relaxants
- Topical pain relievers- These are creams, salves, or ointments you rub into your skin at the site of your pain.
- Antidepressants- Low doses of certain types of antidepressants have been shown to relieve some types of chronic back pain
Injection Options
If other measures do not relieve your pain and if your pain radiates down your leg, your doctor may inject cortisone — an anti-inflammatory medication — or numbing medication into space around your spinal cord (epidural space).
A cortisone injection helps decrease inflammation around the nerve roots, but the pain relief lasts less than a few months.
Physical Therapy
Physical therapy is the main remedy for back pain treatment. A physical therapist can apply a variety of treatments, such as heat, ultrasound, electrical stimulation, and muscle-release techniques, to your back muscles and soft tissues to reduce pain.
As pain improves, the therapist can teach you exercises that can increase your flexibility, strengthen your back and abdominal muscles, and improve your posture. Regular use of these techniques can help prevent pain from returning.
Pain Care Treatments Crafted for the Patient
Surgery usually is reserved for pain related to structural problems, such as narrowing of the spine (spinal stenosis) or a herniated disk, that hasn’t responded to other therapy.
Few people need surgery for back pain.
Our trusted orthopedic surgeon in Nairobi, Kenya develops a personalized treatment plan for you to address your specific back problems.
The goal of treatment is to alleviate your pain, improve your quality of life and treat the person as a whole.
Col (Dr) Adari uses an approach that ensures you get the right care together with the most advanced pain management treatment options that enhance long-term pain-free life.
Hear from some of our patients
Out of country patients
Because of Col (Dr) Adari’s extensive training and experience in elbow arthroscopy, patients travel from all areas of the world for their elbow arthroscopy in Kenya.
If you are an out of the country patient, feel free to let us know so we can accommodate an appropriate time for your consultation with Col (Dr) Adari.
Col (Dr) Adari is known as a top-rated orthopedic & trauma surgeon for elbow arthroscopy in Nairobi, Kenya, and across East Africa, Central Africa, and West Africa.
If you are work – traveling expatriate on diplomatic missions, feel free to contact us so we can accommodate an appropriate time best suited to you for your consultation with Col (Dr) Adari.
Contact us today to reserve your consultation, we are more than happy to assist you with any queries you may have prior to seeing the doctor.
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