FAQ

Back pain, coupled with the below symptoms, indicate a need to visit your doctor for further assessment.

• High fever
• Numbness or tingling sensation in the back, genitals, rectum or buttock
• Fatigue
• Sudden, unexpected weight loss
• Inflammation/swelling on the back
• Incontinence

Lifting heavy objects can put a significant amount of strain on your back, but recurrent back pain could be a sign of a slipped disc. The spinal discs weaken as we age, allowing the contents to leak from the annulus. When this happens, we experience debilitating pain radiating from our back.

Other reasons for chronic back pain include:

• Spinal arthritis happens when cartilage in the spine begins to thin out.
• Spinal stenosis occurs when the spinal canal constricts and puts pressure on the spinal nerves.
• Myofascial pain syndrome is a painful disorder that typically arises from repetitive contractive muscle movement.

Physiotherapy, lifestyle changes, injections like nerve blocks, steroid injections and nerve ablations are conservative treatments for back pain. Surgery is required when bowel or bladder issues occur or you experience weakness in your limbs, balance problems and weak reflexes.

Thoracic laminectomy is a standard procedure to remove spinal tumours. A laminectomy is a procedure to extract the lamina, the bony roof of the spinal canal. This procedure is commonly done to remove tumours and relieve pressure on the nerve roots. Chemotherapy or radiation is necessary, but this depends on the stage of the spine tumour and its location along the vertebrae.

A multidisciplinary team that consists of an orthopaedic surgeon, spine surgeon, medical and radiation oncologists, vascular surgeon and urologist work together to treat a tumour along the spine.