North Texas Comprehensive Spine and Pain

12/16/2021

06/29/2021

Peripheral neuropathy can cause tingling or numbness to limbs and is a cause of damage to the body's peripheral nervous system.

Peripheral neuropathy is the term used for disorders that are caused by damage to the body’s peripheral nervous system.

06/28/2021

Epidural steroid injections are minimally invasive procedures to reduce inflammation and pain.

Epidural steroid injections are a minimally invasive procedure performed to help reduce inflammation and pain caused by nerve root compression.

06/09/2021

Kyphoplasty is a treatment option for those with weakened bones due to cancer or those with compressed vertebrae due to osteoporosis.

Those with weakened bones due to cancer or a collapsed or compressed vertebrae due to osteoporosis may be candidates for kyphoplasty.

06/09/2021

Persistent pain in the pelvic region (between the hips) that lasts more than three to six months is defined as chronic pelvic pain.

Chronic pelvic pain can take several forms. It might be sharp or be a dull ache. It might be constant or intermittent.

06/18/2019

UNDERSTANDING CHRONIC PAIN
Just about everyone feels pain from time to time. When you cut your finger or pull a muscle, pain is your body's way of telling you something is wrong. Once the injury heals, you stop hurting.
Chronic pain is different. Your body keeps hurting weeks, months, or even years after the injury. Doctors often define chronic pain as any pain that lasts for 3 to 6 months or more.Chronic pain can have real effects on your day-to-day life.
Sometimes chronic pain can begin without any obvious cause. But for many people, it starts after an injury or because of a health condition. Some of the leading causes include:
• Past injuries or surgeries
• Back problems
• Migraines and other headaches
• Arthritis
• Nerve damage
• Infections
• Fibromyalgia, a condition in which people feel muscle pain throughout their bodies
Symptoms
Chronic pain can range from mild to severe. It can continue day after day or come and go. The pain can feel like:
• A dull ache
• Throbbing
• Burning
• Shooting
• Squeezing
• Stinging
• Soreness
• Stiffness

05/28/2019

Radiofrequency ablation
Radiofrequency ablation is a therapy that uses radio waves to create an electrical current through the body. This current delivers heat to targeted nerve tissues. And this can help reduce your chronic pain symptoms that are associated with various conditions. This is because the heat is applied to the nerve tissue in a way that impairs or destroys the nerves. This can result in a semi-permanent disturbance of the transmission of pain signals from the spinal column to the brain.
Radiofrequency ablation intially discovered to be an effective treatment for the relief of chronic pain in 1931. It was first utilized to treat a patient with trigeminal neuralgia, which is a pain condition that affects facial nerves, resulting in severe jolts of pain. Due to the treatment benefits of this procedure, radiofrequency ablation has become increasingly popular for both physicians and patients over the past 15 years.

05/28/2019

Epidural steroid injections (ESIs) are a common treatment option for many forms of low back pain and leg pain. They have been used for low back problems since 1952 and are still an integral part of the non-surgical management of sciatica and low back pain. The goal of the injection is pain relief; at times the injection alone is sufficient to provide relief, but commonly an epidural steroid injection is used in combination with a comprehensive rehabilitation program to provide additional benefit. Most practitioners will agree that, while the effects of the injection tend to be temporary - providing relief from pain for one week up to one year - an epidural can be very beneficial for a patient during an acute episode of back and/or leg pain. Importantly, an injection can provide sufficient pain relief to allow a patient to progress with a rehabilitative stretching and exercise program. If the initial injection is effective for a patient, he or she may have up to three in a one-year period. In addition to the low back (the lumbar region), epidural steroid injections are used to ease pain experienced in the neck (cervical) region and in the mid spine (thoracic) region.

05/20/2019

Sacroiliac Joint Anatomy and Function

The sacroiliac joint is a low-motion joint that connects the hip bones to either side of the sacrum, acting primarily as a shock-absorber between the lower body and torso. This joint can also be thought of as the point where the base of the spine connects to the pelvis. The sacroiliac joint is a combination of a synovial joint and the sacroiliac ligaments.

Dysfunction in the sacroiliac joint (also called the SI joint) can produce significant lower back pain, as well as pelvic, groin, and hip pain. Sacroiliac joint dysfunction can be the result of too much motion, too little motion, or inflammation of the joint.

Several studies have found that 15% to 30% of low back pain comes from the sacroiliac joint.1 Women who’ve been pregnant have a higher risk for developing SI joint pain due to changes in the pelvis following pregnancy and childbirth. There is compelling evidence that those who have undergone a lumbar spinal fusion are at a heightened risk for SI joint pain.