Spine Disorders
SIGNS AND SYMPTOMS
CAUSES Your lower back bears most of the weight and stress of your body.
Back pain most often occurs from strained back muscles and ligaments, from
improper or heavy lifting, or after a sudden awkward movement. Sometimes a
muscle spasm can cause back pain. Often, there's an accumulation of stress with
one particular event unleashing the pain. In many cases, there may not be an
obvious cause. Bulging disc (also called protruding, herniated, or ruptured
disc).
The intervertebral discs are under constant pressure. As discs degenerate and
weaken, cartilage can bulge or be pushed into the space containing the spinal
cord or a nerve root, causing pain. Studies have shown that most herniated
discs occur in the lower, lumbar portion of the spinal column. A much more serious complication of a ruptured disc is cauda
equina syndrome, which occurs when disc material is pushed into the spinal canal
and compresses the bundle of lumbar and sacral nerve roots. Permanent
neurological damage may result if this syndrome is left untreated. Spinal
segment dysfunction. This refers to abnormal
spinal segment movement which may be associated with muscular pain, facet
syndrome or discogenic pain Sciatica is a condition in which a herniated or ruptured disc
presses on the sciatic nerve, the large nerve that extends down the spinal
column to its exit point in the pelvis and carries nerve fibers to the leg.
This compression causes shock-like or burning low back pain combined with pain
through the buttocks and down one leg to below the knee, occasionally reaching
the foot. In the most extreme cases, when the nerve is pinched between the disc
and an adjacent bone, the symptoms involve not pain but numbness and some loss
of motor control over the leg due to interruption of nerve signaling. The
condition may also be caused by a tumor, cyst, metastatic disease, or
degeneration of the sciatic nerve root. |