Leg pain, numbness, a weak foot. When a herniated disc is treated without surgery and when a microdiscectomy is needed. Disc treatment in Zaporizhzhia.
- Do not delay
- Disturbed urination or bowel control · Numbness in the groin and the inner thighs
Treatment of back pain, the spine and nerves in Zaporizhzhia
Choose what is troubling you: low back pain radiating into the leg, numb fingers, a weak foot, neck pain shooting into the arm, an inability to walk a hundred metres without stopping. Every article covers what the person feels, when treatment without surgery is possible, when waiting is dangerous and which examinations to bring to the consultation.
Twelve conditions: from the common ones - herniated disc, spinal stenosis, facet syndrome, spondylolisthesis, vertebral fracture - to the rare ones, such as spondylodiscitis and peripheral nerve tumours. Each condition is linked to the procedures that treat it, and back again. Years of teaching at the medical university in Zaporizhzhia and daily practice have taught me to explain complex things in plain words. I wrote and signed every page of this section myself.
A sharp catch, a dull ache, morning stiffness, pain radiating into the leg. When no scans or surgery are needed and when the visit is urgent. Zaporizhzhia.
- Do not delay
- Disturbed urination or bowel control, numbness in the groin · Weakness in both legs, or rapidly increasing weakness in one.
Sharp pain after a fall or from osteoporosis, turning over in bed is hard. A brace, vertebroplasty and spinal stabilisation in Zaporizhzhia.
- Do not delay
- Numbness or weakness in the legs after an injury · Disturbed urination
HOW WE TREAT
The legs go numb while walking and you stop after a hundred metres. Conservative treatment and canal decompression by a neurosurgeon in Zaporizhzhia.
- Do not delay
- Disturbed urination or bowel control, numbness in the groin · Walking distance is shrinking fast
Fingers go numb at night, the hand falls asleep, the grip weakens, things slip. When conservative treatment works and when surgery is needed. Zaporizhzhia.
- Do not delay
- The numbness has become constant, with no clear intervals left. · The muscle at the base of the thumb is wasting
HOW WE TREAT
Instability in the lower back, pain on standing up, radiating into the buttock and leg. A brace, exercise or fusion - treatment in Zaporizhzhia.
- Do not delay
- Disturbed urination or bowel control, numbness in the groin · Increasing weakness in the leg, the foot gives way.
HOW WE TREAT
Pain independent of movement that wakes you at night and grows, weakness in the legs, weight loss. Work-up, tumour removal and fusion in Zaporizhzhia.
- Do not delay
- Increasing weakness in the legs or arms · Disturbed urination or bowel control
HOW WE TREAT
The hand or foot will not obey after a cut, a fracture or a cast, the skin loses sensation. The earlier the surgery, the better the result. Zaporizhzhia.
- Do not delay
- A fresh wound after which the hand or foot stops working · After a fracture or a cast the hand no longer extends.
HOW WE TREAT
The little and ring fingers go numb, the hand weakens, fine movements suffer. Release of the nerve at the elbow or the wrist in Zaporizhzhia.
- Do not delay
- The numbness has become constant · The spaces between the fingers on the back of the hand are hollowing, the muscles are wasting.
HOW WE TREAT
A firm lump under the skin that shocks along the nerve when pressed, numbness and weakness. Microsurgical removal with the nerve preserved in Zaporizhzhia.
- Do not delay
- The mass is growing quickly over weeks and months. · Weakness is increasing in the muscles that nerve supplies.
HOW WE TREAT
Constant back pain that does not ease at rest and wakes you at night, fever, weakness. Antibiotics, a brace or surgery - treatment in Zaporizhzhia.
- Do not delay
- Back pain together with fever · Weakness in the legs, disturbed urination
HOW WE TREAT
Pain on extension and twisting, morning stiffness, nothing below the knee. Nerve block, radiofrequency denervation and physical therapy in Zaporizhzhia.
- Do not delay
- The pain has started radiating into the leg below the knee, with numbness. · Weakness in the foot.
Preparation, anaesthesia, recovery
For those getting ready for a consultation or surgery: what to bring, how anaesthesia works, how long recovery takes.
MRI or CT
How an MRI differs from a CT, which part to scan, whether your images are out of date and why a disc is needed rather than a report. From Zaporizhzhia.
Preparing for surgery
Which tests are needed, which medicines are stopped in advance, what to bring with you and how the day before surgery goes. From the neurosurgeon.
Anaesthesia
General, spinal or local - what the choice depends on, what the anaesthetist checks, whether anaesthesia is dangerous with heart disease or in old age.
Duration and hospital stay
How long the operation itself runs, how the admission day goes, how many nights on the ward after a microdiscectomy, a fusion or a percutaneous procedure.
Recovery after surgery
When to get up, drive, go back to work and to the gym, how long to wear a brace and which loads are off limits in the first weeks after surgery.
Risks and age
What really sets the risk - not age, but the heart, the vessels, the lungs and blood clotting. When surgery is justified and when it is declined.
Can't find your condition?
That is normal: most patients come not with a diagnosis but with a complaint - "my lower back hurts and it pulls down my leg", "my fingers go numb", "I cannot walk a hundred metres". The name of the condition is established at the consultation, after the examination and the scans.
When you call, describe what hurts and for how long. If you already have an MRI or CT, say when it was done.
Which doctor to see - a neurologist or a neurosurgeon. Start with a neurologist: they manage the conservative treatment that helps most people. You see a neurosurgeon when six weeks of treatment have not helped, when weakness in a leg or arm is increasing, or when the scan shows a compressed nerve. If you are unsure, call - I will tell you whether you need a surgeon at all.
What to bring to the consultation
- MRI or CT scans on a disc or a flash drive, preferably 1.5 Tesla and no more than six months old - what to bring and on what;
- discharge summaries from previous treatment, if you have them;
- an electronic referral from your family doctor;
- a list of medicines you take regularly.