Dr. Wilkins Answers Your Questions: Can you have a herniated disc in your back or neck and have no pain with it?

The answer is yes. I am a research nut; I read 5 – 10 new research papers per week. When they started to do MRIs, they wanted to find out what would be the percentage of people that were asymptomatic (no pain) that would in fact have herniation or bulges in their low back. Now, the reason for checking the low back is that 80% of all herniations are in the low back compared to the cervical spine. What they did was take 100 people that were asymptomatic (no pain) and did an MRI of their low back and found that 50% of half of them had herniations or bulges in their low back.

Dr. Wilkins, what is whiplash injury and the symptoms it causes the patient?

Because of this being a touchy subject, I went to my radiology text book, Essentials of Skeletal Radiology. According to this text book, “The so-called whiplash syndrome is a common clinical condition that has received a high volume of published material since the 1960s, much of which – when scrutinized scientifically for validity – is found flawed. Neck spasms are common in all Western countries, and are reported in 20 to 60% of all motor vehicle accidents.

Frequently Asked Questions: Can you be treated with DRS or Axial Decompression if you have already had surgery to the cervical spine or low back?

As a matter of fact 25% of my practice has already had 1, 2, 3, or even 4 surgeries to either their low backs or cervical spines.

The surgeries that the patients have had are discectomy, micro-discectomy, fusion surgeries, and Facet surgery. Also, a new one is the X-Stop Spacer. All of these surgeries require different times of healing before we can begin treating the patient.

Dr. Wilkins Answers Your Questions: What is whiplash injury and the symptoms it causes the patient?

Because of this being a touchy subject, I went to my radiology text book, Essentials of Skeletal Radiology. According to this text book, “The so-called whiplash syndrome is a common clinical condition that has received a high volume of published material since the 1960s, much of which – when scrutinized scientifically for validity – is found flawed. Neck spasms are common in all Western countries, and are reported in 20 to 60% of all motor vehicle accidents.

Classically, the injury follows a forced, hyperextension – hyperinflection of the cervical spine, most commonly associated with a rear-end motor vehicle collision. The lay press and legal profession have popularized the term whiplash as an all embracing term for a wide variety of soft tissue neck injuries from a broad spectrum of cases. Synonyms are numerous, including acceleration-deceleration, flexion-extension, hyperflexion-hyperextension, sprain-strain, myofascial injury, and soft tissue injury.

Your Questions Answered: Can I be treated with DRS or Axial Decompression if I have already had surgery to the cervical spine or low back?

As a matter of fact 25% of my practice has already had 1, 2, 3, or even 4 surgeries to either their low backs or cervical spines.

The surgeries that the patients have had are discectomy, micro-discectomy, fusion surgeries, and Facet surgery. Also, a new one is the X-Stop Spacer. All of these surgeries require different times of healing before we can begin treating the patient. Of course, before we can let the patients know if we can help them, they have to have an extensive evaluation consisting of a complete history and review of all imaging studies, a consultation, a surface EMG, posture exam, computerized range of motion, x-rays of the area, and a neurological and orthopedic evaluation.