Our back is a small area, but there are so many interconnected nerves running through it that it's not always easy to spot problematic pain. If the pain in your back persists and is severe, you may be experiencing something called dorsalgia.
Dorsalgia signs and symptoms vary depending on the intensity and unique physical characteristics of the condition. If you have ongoing pain in your back and aren't sure what the problem is, a chiropractic appointment is the best way to get a diagnosis and treatment plan for recovery. Once you're diagnosed with dorsalgia , it's important to understand how the condition occurs and what you can do to help you recover.
What is Dorsalgia?
There are many levels of severity, from an annoying irritant that bothers you occasionally to pain so severe that you can't even do the basic things necessary to have a good quality of life. The pain that comes with dorsalgia is often severe and can disrupt your daily living habits.
Dorsalgia is the label for any severe back pain that begins in the muscles, nerves, and joints of the back. There are six types of dorsalgia that radiate from a specific area in your spine: cervical, cervicothoracic, thoracic, thoracolumbar, lumbar, and lumbosacral. How severe your pain typically is depends on the area of the spine that hurts and the cause of the problem. A diagnosis of dorsalgia includes anything related to spinal pain, but excludes certain conditions that have their own diagnosis, such as scoliosis and lordosis.
What Causes Dorsalgia?
There are thousands of possible causes of back pain, and any one of them could be the cause of yours. But if you've been diagnosed with dorsalgia , the likely culprit is one of these factors:
- A bulging disc
- a herniated disc
- An injury, such as a car accident, sports-related incident, slip and fall, or physical fight
- Overuse from ongoing difficult physical exertion or labor
- Chronic, ongoing stress
Any of these conditions may be causing your severe back pain. Your chiropractor or physical therapist can help you identify the trigger for your pain so you can work to prevent it from occurring in the future.
How to Treat Dorsalgia?
Most cases of dorsalgia can be treated with conservative treatment. If your symptoms are caught in the early stages, this type of therapy helps resolve pain and prevent further symptoms through preventative care.
In Physical Therapy and Chiropractic, conservative treatment includes measures such as physical therapy, chiropractic adjustments, and massage therapy. If these typical conservative treatments do not provide relief from pain, your specialist may recommend other means of care. Sometimes the severity of dorsalgia is so intense that it does not respond to conservative treatment. If your chiropractor determines that the condition causing your pain is too severe for treatment, he or she may recommend that you see a surgeon.
Surgical options are generally an end-case scenario. These are necessary and effective, but when a patient has a severe disc herniation, needs a spinal fusion to relieve pain, or has a lot of pain, the surgical procedure is the quickest and most effective way to help the individual return to a good quality of life.
0 Comments