What Is Disc Prolapse?

Your spine consists of intervertebral discs sandwiched between the stack of vertebrae. Discs are round and flat, that contains inner jellylike material (nucleus pulposus) covered by outer tough layer ( annulus fibrosus). These discs act as shock absorbers, and they facilitate movement in the spine. With aging , the outer layer of the disc becomes tough & hardened , while the inner layer remains soft , with jelly like consistency . when the outer layer tears or ruptures, this jelly will leak out or slips out. This slipped out portion of the disc will compress on the surrounding nerve roots and causes pain, numbness ,& weakness . This is known as “slipped disc” or herniated disc. Slipped disc could be caused by a traumatic injury, or it may result from normal “wear and tear,” a natural process of aging called disc degeneration.

Non Surgical Treatment For Disc Prolapse

If the pain lasts longer than six weeks, there’s a good chance it won’t go away without treatment. Because the disc will never “un-herniate” or return to normal, there is always the risk of pain reappearing at any time. Interventional pain management can help with this.

• Lumbar Epidural Steroid Injection – This procedure is a highly efficient back pain treatment. During this treatment, the doctor will insert a small needle into the epidural space and administer a little dose of medicine under fluoroscopic guidance to relieve the pain.
• Transforaminal Epidural Steroid Injection – This method is identical to the one described above, except that the drug is directed directly onto the nerve fibres that make up the nerve, delivering more medication to the affected area.
• Biacuplasty – This procedure heals damaged nerves using radiofrequency ablation (RFA) inside degenerate discs. This is an outpatient operation that takes only a few minutes.
• Spinal cord stimulation– When the inflammation in and around the afflicted nerves is too severe for an epidural injection, spinal cord stimulation (SCS) is an excellent and successful therapy option for pain relief without surgery. An electrical pulse is given directly to the spine in SCS, restricting the passage of certain neuron fibres to the brain and, as a result, the brain’s ability to experience the previously perceived pain.
• Microdiscectomy – If the inflammation in and around the afflicted nerves is too severe for an epidural injection, another alternative is microdiscectomy. Some of the injured material around the nerve(s) is removed during microdiscectomy.