Whether it’s a twinge you feel when bending over or a full onslaught of pain as you try to straighten up, back pain is a common issue for millions of Americans. The conditions that might cause the back pain, however, are as diverse and complex as the people it affects. Discovering what’s at the root of your pain is vital to developing an effective treatment strategy.
Patrick Doherty, MD, is a widely respected neurosurgeon who is committed to improving the quality of life and overall health of his patients. He leads our team here at Yale Neurosurgery New London, where our top priority is accurately diagnosing and effectively treating painful spinal issues that lead to sometimes debilitating neck and back pain.
Dr. Doherty shares more about the diseases responsible for back pain and how our top-rated team can help resolve your pain and restore your mobility.
The spine is a complex structure of bones, muscles, ligaments, and other tissues, and it’s intricately involved in just about every movement you make. You also rely on the spine to support your upper body, hold you erect as you walk, and allow you to twist to the side. It’s also a storehouse of spinal nerves that constantly carry vital messages, including pain signals, from the brain to your body and back again.
Because your spine is so complex, back pain may be related to muscle strain, soft tissue disease, problems in the bones themselves, or conditions that affect the health of your nerves. Often, a combination of these factors leads to discomfort that can vary in intensity, may become chronic, and affects many aspects of everyday life.
At Yale Neurosurgery, we know that truly effective treatment for back pain requires first understanding what’s causing your pain and addressing those issues as we develop a formula to relieve your discomfort.
Muscular and/or ligamentous strain is a common cause of back pain. Many times, however, conditions affecting your bone and joint health also lie at the root of the discomfort.
These may include:
All these conditions can irritate and inflame nearby nerves which voice their discomfort with varying levels of pain.
Issues that directly affect spinal nerves include:
Lower back pain may also be caused by diseases that affect nearby organs, such as kidney stones or endometriosis.
At Yale Neurosurgery New London, we focus on relieving your pain as well as accurately diagnosing the cause of your pain. Thus, every case is unique.
Your treatment might include conservative measures such as physical therapy, activity modification, and oral pain medication. If necessary, we also provide traditional as well as highly advanced robotic surgical treatments that correct the underlying problem in the least invasive and most effective way possible.
The first step in finding long-term relief from your back pain is scheduling an evaluation with us at Yale Neurosurgery New London. Call our office in New London, Connecticut, or request an appointment online today.
