Osteoporosis Treatment

Management of Pain Attributable to a Spinal Compression Fracture

If you will have osteoporosis, you could suffer pain attributable to a vertebral fracture. Although some people feel little or no pain from a spinal fracture, other individuals experience intense pain that continues even after the fracture heals. But you wish not suffer from chronic pain in silence. There are numerous spine fracture treatment options available.

Medications for Back Pain

Doctors generally recommend over-the-counter pain relievers resembling aspirin, acetaminophen or ibuprofen as a first treatment option for acute pain, including back pain attributable to compression spinal fractures. Although these medicines often help with moderate pain, they could cause stomach upset, gastrointestinal bleeding, or irritated stomach lining. Prolonged use may even result in liver disease.

For more severe pain, your doctor may prescribe stronger pain medications resembling anti-inflammatory drugs or narcotics you can take for under a short while. Should you suffer chronic pain attributable to osteoporosis, antidepressant medication is an alternative choice to think about. Tricyclic antidepressants often are effective in helping to alleviate lower back pain attributable to a spinal fracture.

Physical Therapy

Pain from osteoporosis could make it hard to maneuver. Nevertheless, inactivity weakens muscles and reduces flexibility and range of motion — conditions that may increase the danger of fractures to bones weakened by osteoporosis.

Should you suffer from osteoporosis pain, a physical therapist can instruct you in exercises to extend flexibility and strengthen your abdominal and back muscles without hurting your spine. Exercise also releases endorphins into your bloodstream. These chemicals, also known as the body’s natural pain relievers, create an analgesic effect.

You furthermore may need weight-bearing exercise to construct strong bones, but when you will have osteoporosis, avoid high-impact exercise that increases your risk of fracturing weak bones. Exercises that require twisting or bending forward also put you at greater risk for extra fractures.

Water Therapy

Exercise programs for individuals with osteoporosis often include water therapy to strengthen back muscles and reduce pain. Water therapy is a type of exercise therapy that health care providers recommend for people with osteoporosis who’ve decreased bone density.

The buoyancy of water supports your weight as you exercise, decreasing the pressure in your spine in order that it’s less painful to maneuver. The resistance you get in water is lower than once you exercise out of the pool, yet the resistance water provides helps improve your balance and strength.

Back Brace

Some doctors recommend wearing a back brace to support your spine and help ease the pain of a spinal fracture. Pain often goes away after the bone heals itself. But not everyone advantages from bracing. Wearing the brace for too long could make your muscles and bones weaker, not stronger.

Surgery

When other treatment options fail to administer chronic osteoporosis pain attributable to a compression fracture, your doctor may recommend surgery. This will be the case if the progression of your osteoporosis is speeding, if you happen to’ve lost height, or if pain becomes so severe that it limits your mobility.

Vertebroplasty

Vertebroplasty is a procedure that involves injecting a cement mixture into the bone with a needle to stabilize the fracture and help the bone heal. Sometimes doctors must do a second injection to fill the bone with enough cement.

Kyphoplasty

Kyphoplasty is one other minimally invasive surgical treatment doctors use to stabilize vertebral compression fractures. The procedure requires inflating a small balloon contained in the bone. This creates an area into which the doctor then injects the bone cement mixture.

A needle through which the balloon is placed is inserted through the skin and into the bone. Once the injected cement hardens, it prevents the spine bone from collapsing.

While you do not know where else to show for relief from chronic pain related to osteoporosis, the pain management professionals at Specialists in Pain Management will help.