Himchan Hospital "Caution of spinal stenosis for the elderly in winter"Doubtful if the posture is comfortable."
Dec 01, 2024
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When you shrink from the cold, your muscles and ligaments contract and stiffen, which can easily cause pain.
It also puts a strain on the back as the muscle stiffens as the exercise decreases.
In particular, the elderly should be more careful due to decreased muscle strength and decreased bone density.
According to statistics from the Health Insurance Review and Assessment Service, 1.82 million patients visited the hospital last year due to spinal stenosis. Among them, more than 80% of the elderly and elderly patients in their 60s or older accounted for.
In some cases, it is regarded as an aging process and left unattended, but if you do not receive proper treatment, you may experience inconvenience in moving in severe cases, so you should be careful.
◇Lower back reduces pain, suspected spinal stenosis...When left unattended, it's "Kkubu and Waist"
Spinal duct stenosis is a disease in which the spinal canal narrows due to degenerative changes such as thickening of ligaments and bones around the spine.
The spinal canal is a passage through which nerves to the spinal cord and the lower extremities pass. Therefore, when the spinal canal narrows, the nerves are pressed and numbness appears. Pain usually appears when standing or walking for a long time, and if it gets worse, it becomes difficult to move even a short distance.
At this time, if the waist is bent forward, the narrowed spinal canal temporarily widens and reduces pain, so the posture of stopping and bending the waist is repeated while walking. As a result, it gradually changes to a bent waist 'twisted waist'.
Leg numbness or back pain is a symptom similar to a lumbar disc (intervertebral disc exodus).
Disks visit hospitals faster because of persistent pain, but spinal stenosis tends to disappear when resting or lying down, so they often do not receive proper treatment. However, once spinal stenosis progresses, natural recovery is almost impossible, so if you are old, you should receive a professional diagnosis without overcoming temporary back pain.
Han Jung-in, director of the Spinal Clinic at Gangbuk Himchan Hospital, responded, "'Spinal duct stenosis is almost impossible to recover naturally once it begins. The waist may become increasingly bent, resulting in a so-called 'twisted waist' or accompanied by paralysis"If you stop frequently due to back pain or numbness in your legs, rest frequently, and bend your back forward, you should suspect spinal stenosis and get an accurate diagnosis."
◇Balloon dilatation continues to reduce pain and improve function, resulting in high satisfaction
If you visit a hospital because of suspected spinal stenosis, consultations, interviews, and imaging tests will be performed.
Imaging examinations generally utilize MRI (magnetic resonance imaging) and CT (computed tomography). Sometimes, if necessary, angiography, nerve conduction tests, and electromyography tests are performed.
As a result of the diagnosis, if the symptoms are mild, stability and posture correction can relieve pain.
If necessary, prescriptions of drugs such as anti-inflammatory analgesics and muscle relaxants, or physical treatments such as heat therapy and traction therapy will be combined.
If there is no improvement or the pain felt by the patient is severe, injection treatment or procedure may be considered.
Among several procedures, the most widely used procedure in recent years is intervertebral balloon dilatation.
After partial anesthesia of the tailbone area, make an incision as small as 2 to 3 cm to insert a catheter, inflate the balloon at the stenosis area with a catheter to widen the narrowed spinal tube and inject a drug to reduce swelling and inflammation.
Unlike conventional injection therapy, which only injects drugs, it is more effective in reducing pain because drugs are injected after widening the stenosis area using balloons. In addition, it progresses to partial anesthesia and has a small incision site, so it can be applied to elderly patients or chronic patients such as hypertension and osteoporosis.
Studies have also shown that balloon dilatation has a good effect on continuous improvement of back pain.
According to a paper published in the Journal of Clinical Medicine, an SCI (E)-level journal, published by Shin Jin-woo, a professor of anesthesia and pain medicine at Asan Medical Center in Seoul, and Park Jin-kyu, a neurosurgery director at Bupyeong Himchan Hospital, participated. After conducting balloon dilatation and neuroplasty on 60 patients with spinal stenosis, the improvement effect of neuroplasty decreased over time, while balloon dilatation continued to reduce pain and improve function for six months, and patient satisfaction was also high.
In addition, Himchan Hospital surveyed the pain evaluation scale (VAS) on 70 patients with intervertebral disc herniation and spinal stenosis (35 men and women, respectively, an average age of 61.7 years), who underwent balloon dilatation from March 2019 to September 2023, and found that the pain score decreased by about 42% from an average of 9.3 before the procedure to 5.4 after two weeks.
Lee Dong-chan, director of the spinal clinic at Mokdong Himchan Hospital, said, `Balloon dilatation can be useful for patients complaining of chronic low back pain and lower limb radiating pain, patients with recurrence of pain after neuroplasty, and patients with pain caused by adhesion after spinal surgery"However, if conservative treatment such as non-surgical treatment does not improve pain or damage the motor nerves, resulting in paralysis, or even difficulty in daily life due to pain or loss of sensation, it is recommended to consider surgical treatment."
◇ Maintaining normal weight, correct posture is important...Regular exercise is necessary
Meanwhile, to prevent spinal stenosis, it is better to maintain a normal weight and exercise regularly.
In addition, avoid twisting or bending your back and maintain a correct posture.
In particular, it is good to keep warm in winter, and to relieve stiff muscles and rigid ligaments with sufficient stretching before exercising or outside activities.
bellho@sportschosun.com
