Treating Spinal Conditions

Baptist Health Richmond: Treating Spinal Conditions

Surgeon JAMES RICE, MD, explains how spine issues can lead to numbness, tingling or pain throughout the body and describes surgical and non-surgical treatment options.

Treating Spinal Conditions Health Talks Transcript

James Rice, MD, Orthopedic Surgery
Spine issues can present as neck or back pain. Typically, it’s from a problem with those areas. It can also present as pain radiating down the arms or legs or even numbness or tingling in those areas. They can be brought on by an injury, a trauma or a herniated disc, sometimes fractures. With any patient with a spine problem, the first treatment option typically is nonsurgical unless they have some serious neurologic issues. People with back pain or new onset pain are typically treated with physical therapy, medications of some kind and potentially injections. Then, if those treatments fail, surgery may be an option. Spine surgery is best focused on problems where the nerves are pinched in the cervical or lumbar spine, and often times this is treated with a discectomy or another decompression type procedure that takes the pressure off of these nerves to allow pain relief. Sometimes a fusion procedure is necessary where hardware may be used to stabilize a fracture or another problem where there is instability in the spine. The best part about having spine surgery at Baptist Health Richmond is that it offers patients an option that is closer to home, and they can stay right here and recover close to home, which always makes the recovery process better.