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Helpful tools from Wilkins Spinal Care

Be sure to check out our main Web site at www.WilkinsSpinalCare.com where you can access helpful tips, interactive pain assessment tools, frequently asked questions, upcoming seminar notices, medical related articles, videos and so much more.

Let us help you get on the road to recovery!
Visit our Main Web site at www.WilkinsSpinalCare.com
Learn how you can eliminate back pain.

FYI: Spinal Stenosis – What is it?

Spinal stenosis is a narrowing of the vertebral canal, nerve root canals, or intervertebral foramen of the lumbar spine caused by encroachment of bone upon the space. Symptoms are caused by compression of the cauda equine and include pain, parasthesias and neurological claudication. The condition may be either congenital (you were born with it) or due to Spinal degeneration.

The way I explain this to patients is narrowing of the open spaces in the spine. This can cause compression of the nerve roots or spinal cord by bony spurs or soft tissue, such as discs in the spinal canal. This occurs most often in the lumbar spine (in the low back) but also occurs in the cervical spine (in the neck).

Spinal Stenosis occurs mostly in people older than 50. Younger people with a spine injury or a narrow spinal canal are also at risk. Diseases such as arthritis and Scoliosis (curvature of the spine) can cause Spinal Stenosis too. Symptoms might appear gradually or not at all. They include pain in the neck or back, numbness, weakness, or pain in your arms or legs, and foot problems.

Sources: Dorland’s Medical Dictionary

Let us help you get on the road to recovery!
Visit our Main Web site at www.WilkinsSpinalCare.com
Learn how you can eliminate back pain.

We would like to help

Let Wilkins Spinal Care help you get on the road to recovery.

Visit our Main Web site at www.WilkinsSpinalCare.com

Learn how you can eliminate back pain.

Spinal Injections and the Different Types of Injections Being Used

A spinal injection is a procedure performed by a physician, designed to alleviate your pain. When these procedures are performed, its usually done with an x-ray, known as a fluoroscopy, as to assure the doctor knows what spinal structures the needle will be going into. There have been published reports showing that injections that were performed without fluoroscopy that the medication went into the wrong place 25% to 40% of the time!

The purpose of a therapeutic injection is to provide the patient with temporary pain relief.

Information about sciatica

Sciatica is a syndrome characterized by pain radiating from the back into the butt and into the lower extremity along its posterior or lateral aspect, and most commonly caused by protrusion of a low lumbar intervertebral disc. The term is also used to refer to pain anywhere along the course of the sciatic nerve. (Dorland’s Medical Dictionary)

The way I like to explain it to patients is this. Quite often leg pain or foot pain does not mean that there is a problem with the leg or the foot, but rather that there is a problem in the low back, causing pain and possibly other symptoms to radiate, or be referred to the leg or the foot. This can include muscle weakness. The important thing to understand is that sciatica is a symptom of a problem of something compressing or irritating the nerve roots that comprise the sciatic nerve – rather than a medical diagnosis or medical disorder. This is an important distinction, because it is the underlying diagnosis (versus the symptoms of sciatica) that often needs to be treated in order to relieve sciatic nerve pain.

About spinal fusion surgery

According to Dorland’s Medical Dictionary, fusion surgery is operative immobilization or ankylosis of two or more vertibra, often with discectomy or laminectomy. Types are named for the surface immobilized, such as anterior spinal fusion, lateral spinal fusion, posterior spinal fusion, and posterolateral spinal fusion.

In easier terms to understand – there are different surgical procedures that may be used for spinal fusion. They differ in the surgical approach and the instrumentation used.

Chiropractic Care – An Alternative to Medicine

Chiropractic is the care of choice, as the majority of people today look for an alternative to medicine as well as those seeking to live life to their fullest potential.

At Wilkins Spinal Care we utilize the Pierce chiropractic technique coupled with the low force low impact technology of the Thompson drop table. The technique utilizes precise X-ray analysis to determine the area of concern and this allows the doctor to apply a specific force to a specific area while minimizing the force required to make the adjustment. This is comfortable for both the patient and the doctor and makes the adjusting experience less about twisting and popping and more about delivering the right amount of force at the right time to the right region. The newest technology in chiropractic adjustment is also available at Wilkins Spinal Care known as the PULSTAR unit this utilizes NASA technology to provide a specific computerized analysis of the spine as well as a comfortable low impact adjustment.

Dr. Larry Talks About the Side Effects of Surgery

In explaining to my patients the significant risks of surgery for disc conditions, I often refer to Dr. Richard Busch’s extensive work on the subject in his book, “Surgery Not Included”. Here he explains the possible surgical outcomes;

“There are UNFORTUNATE side effects for patients who have had surgery for disc conditions, especially fusion-type surgeries. These surgeries have a shelf life of two to five years, if even that, before the patient may begin to experience “failed surgery syndrome.” This can occur because the bones or vertebrae are fused together, and the fused bones no longer move normally. This causes more movement and stress on the vertebral levels above and below the fused vertebrae, which leads to degeneration and more of the same problems in the areas adjacent to the fusion. A study published in the July 2000 issue of Spine confirms that less than five years after spinal fusion, the adjacent vertebrae have disc narrowing or degeneration.”

In short, the rapidly growing use of spinal fusion-type surgeries has led to even more surgeries (compounding) because of the harm done to adjacent discs prompts surgeons to repeat the procedure on the newly degenerating discs.

This is worse when you consider that fusions have increased from 9% in 1993 to 19% in 2000. The long-term outcome of spinal surgeries is poor at best, that’s why we use the DRS Protocol in our clinic, and we love to help patients who are experiencing “failed surgery syndrome”.

Let us help you get on the road to recovery!
Visit our Main Web site at www.WilkinsSpinalCare.com
Learn how you can eliminate back pain.

Different types of injections

A spinal injection is a procedure performed by a physician, designed to alleviate your pain. When these procedures are performed, its usually done with an x-ray, known as a fluoroscopy, as to assure the doctor knows what spinal structures the needle will be going into. There have been published reports showing that injections that were performed without fluoroscopy that the medication went into the wrong place 25% to 40% of the time!

The purpose of a therapeutic injection is to provide the patient with temporary pain relief.