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Back Surgery Options

• Avoiding knee surgery by treating back and hip pain

  Published on April 19, 2012.

  “We suggest that rheumatologists be aware of hip disease masquerading as knee pain or low back pain.” (1) That is what researchers suggest before treating their patient’s chronic pain.

  Here is another interesting study out of the United Kingdom. Writing in the medical journal International Orthopaedics, researchers sought to explain why “up to 20% (of total knee replacement patients) complain of persisting pain.”

  So at Lister General Hospital, Stevenage, UK, Doctors looked at Forty-five consecutive patients with painful total knee replacement. Of the 45 patients, 15 patients had degenerative hip and lumbar spine disease. Nine patients had unexplained pain.

  The doctors concluded: “Patients may still be undergoing knee arthroplasty for degenerative lumbar spine and hip osteoarthritis. We suggest heightened awareness at pre- and post-operative assessment and thorough history and examination with the use of diagnostic injections to identify the cause of pain if there is doubt.” (2 )

  At the Magaziner Center for Wellness we understand “referred pain.” Referred pain is defined as pain perceived at a location other than the site of the painful stimulus. For instance, a nerve or ligament problem in the spine causing pain in the lower extremities. This is why a thorough physical examination is necessary to determine the patient’s  true cause of pain.

  Way back in 1961, pioneering Prolotherapy Abraham Meyers, M.D., presented a land mark paper where he acknowledged “that irritation of ligaments of the lumbosacral region may act as trigger points resulting in local pain and in secondary conducted pain to specific dermatome or areas in the lower extremities and that both the local and referred pain has its origin within the ligaments. (3)

  Before surgery, please consider an appointment to help make sure the true source of your pain is identified.

  1.  Nakamura J, Oinuma K, Ohtori S, et al. Distribution of hip pain in osteoarthritis patients secondary to developmental dysplasia of the hip. Mod Rheumatol. 2012 Apr 11. [Epub ahead of print]

  2. Al-Hadithy N, Rozati H, Sewell MD, Dodds AL, Brooks P, Chatoo M. Causes of a painful total knee arthroplasty. Are patients still receiving total knee arthroplasty for extrinsic pathologies? Int Orthop. 2012 Jan 11. [Epub ahead of print]

  3. Meyers A. BULLETIN OF THE HOSPITAL FOR JOINT DISEASES. Volume XXII, No. 1, April 1961

  See also:
  Unnecessary spinal surgery

  and
  Why MRIs are not an important part of our practice

  
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