Category Archives: Back Pain

Confirmed – Intrathecal (Spinal) Midazolam Gives 1-3 Months Relief in Chronic and Failed Back Pain

Tweet Those who have epidural steroid injections for back pain know they are limited often to injections every 3 months (except for initial 3 shots). When the pain comes back in 3-6 weeks – what can one do? Now it … Continue reading

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Sacral Insufficiency Fractures – Hard to Make – a Possible Examination Technique

Tweet One elderly lady, I recently saw, fell and multiple fractured her left humerus. Was seen, put in a sling, kept briefly in hospital and discharged. Because she could not walk, she was reassessed and found to have a pubic … Continue reading

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Midazolam Augmentation of Lumbar Steroid Injections – Use, in Just Mechanical Back Pain

Tweet Recent article demonstrated that a combination of steroid and midazolam worked well for post herpetic neuralgia: Miracle Treatment – Low Back Post Herpetic (Post Shingles)Neuralgia Treated With Epidural Steroid and Spinal Midazolam Without Local Can Give Significant Relief For … Continue reading

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Actonel Improves Osteoporosis Back Pain Without Fracture – on 5 mg/day

Tweet In Osteoporosis, not only did Risedronate 5 mg/day cut back pain to 1/3 in 4 months, it cut the disability rating in half – despite the fact there were no fractures.

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Smokers 1.5 times More Back Pain – Does Quitting Become An Effective Treatment?

Tweet This was a large Canadian study and results demonstrated “this association remained significant after controlling for sociodemographics and any lifetime anxiety or mood disorder.”  If smokers back pain dropped to normal after quitting, this would result in a 33% … Continue reading

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Steroid Epidurals – Why Some Work And Some Not So Well

Tweet Recent findings demonstrate lying patient with bad side down for 15 minutes can almost double its effectiveness.

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Sciatica Pain Is Different and Does NOT Respond Much to Pregabalin (Lyrica)

Tweet Recent guidelines for treating Neuropathic pain have drawn extensively from results with Diabetic and Post Herpetic Neuropathy. I have written about how those results cannot be generalized to treatment of Radiculopathy (sciatica either of back or neck).  see here:  … Continue reading

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Sacroiliits Totally Unthought of Treatment – Filter Out White Blood Cells – Filtration Leukocytapheresis

Tweet Lady with ulcerative colitis and sacroiliitis improved after leukocytapheresis (LCAP).

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What Concerns People on Work Disability With Low Back Pain

Tweet Recent Article takes a survey of concerns of low back pain patients sent for rehab. The results are no surprise.

Posted in Back Pain, Insurer issues | 2 Comments

Vitamin C in Press Again – Low Contributes to Disc Disease?

Tweet Recent Hypothesis forwarded that low Vitamin C sets the stage for disc disease and once disc degeneration started, it is a self fueling inflammatory disease.

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Localized Cause of Back Pain – Inter-Spinous Process Bursitis “Baastrup’s Disease”

Tweet An MRI found intraspinous processes bursitis in 8.2% of individuals which could be causing segmental back pain.

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Chronic “Back” Pain Missed in Elderly – the Costo-Iliac Impingment Syndrome

Tweet With the loss of height from osteoporosis in the elderly, the lowermost side ribs can rub on the side wing of the hip crest, resulting in was patients describe as back pain. To make things worse, this rubbing restricts … Continue reading

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Determining If Veretbral Compression Fracture

Tweet Various new approaches help define vertebral compression fracture so can be earlier diagnosed.

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Yes, Virginia, Steroid Caudal Blocks Are Effective (At least For Spinal Stenosis)- and So Older People With Back Pain After Two Blocks Walking Are Better.

Tweet Article in Press Finds Caudal Epidural Steroid injection work for degenerative lumbar spinal stenosis. This condition is the bane of older individuals that can’t walk more than a 2-3 blocks without getting back – leg pain. The pain remits … Continue reading

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? Sciatica Option – Drug For Pulmonary Hypertension Gives Relief

Tweet Case study of patient on Sitaxsentan, a selective endothelin-A antagonist used in pulmonary hypertension, found his sciatica got better while on the drug and worse when off.

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New Painkiller for Back & Knee Pains – Raloxifene (Evista) – a drug for Osteoporosis

Tweet There is a connection between osteoporosis and arthritis with arthritis settling in more in osteoporotic joints. Now an osteoporotic drug can not only help that but seems to have analgesic properties to back and knee pains if used regularly.

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Groundbreaking News – A “Cure” For Chronic Discogenic Back Pain??

Tweet A simple procedure injecting 1 ml of 1% methylene blue followed by 1 ml 2% lidocaine into damaged disc has achieved unprecedented results

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Ultrasound and TENS for Back Pain

Tweet I have found home ultrasound helpful in chronic back pain but there has been little research in its effectivenesss. Now there is a study in low back pain combining it with exercise that found it useful. TENS worked well … Continue reading

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Part of Failed Back is Overactivity of Sympathetic Nervous System

Tweet Failed back sydrome – post-laminectomy syndrome has multiple origins. Now it appears some sympathetic overload is present as well.

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Advanced Disc Degeneration Still Very Painful

Tweet Article states “there has been a belief that DD initially causes pain because of the penetration of fluid nuclear material through annular fissures, and that pain eventually resolves as the nucleus becomes fibrotic and can no longer penetrate the … Continue reading

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