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Spine injuries can affect the neck, as well as the upper or lower back. Injuries to the neck and back can result from car accidents, sports injuries, on-the-job accidents, lifting injuries—even working around the house.
When you have a neck or back injury, Dr. Foroohar offers non-surgical and surgical treatments to relieve your pain and help you get back to normal.
Herniated discs resulting from an injury
Sprains and strains
Spine fractures
Ligament injuries
“When I examine a patient with a neck or upper-back injury, normally I do an MRI,” Dr. Foroohar explains. “Depending on the trauma, I may also do x-rays and/or a CT scan of the cervical spine.”
“With the lumbar spine, I take the same approach as with a cervical spine injury—I will order imaging studies including an MRI and possibly x-rays and a CT scan,” says Dr. Foroohar.
I believe in taking a conservative approach, and will often prescribe a non-surgical treatment plan that may include:
If the symptoms persist, particularly pain, numbness and tingling, and weakness in the arms or legs, we could consider neck or lower-back surgery if conservative efforts fail.
Depending on what the imaging shows, sometimes we have to do surgery to stabilize lower-back fractures. Other cases can be treated by immobilization with a brace.
For older patients with thoracic and lumbar compression fractures, there are minimally invasive procedures called vertebroplasty and kyphoplasty, where we inject bone cement into the bone. .