Low Back Pain

Low back pain is a common cause of lost workdays and missed activities. If you’re finding it hard to lead the life you want because of low back pain, Pacific Sports and Spine in Eugene, Oregon, offers effective treatment options that get you moving and enjoying life again. The interventional pain specialists use cutting-edge treatments such as steroid injections, radiofrequency neurotomy, spinal cord stimulation, and other advanced technologies to address the causes of this pain. 

woman holding lower back in pain

Your lower back is the lumbar region of your spine and the area most prone to injury and degenerative diseases.

Forms of damage include muscle and tendon strains and ligament sprains. These are common sports injuries, but strains can also happen if you twist awkwardly, overload your back, or do excessive physical activity.

Chronic conditions that often cause low back pain include:

  • Degenerative disc disease
  • Facet joint syndrome
  • Lumbar radiculopathy (sciatica)
  • Spinal stenosis
  • Herniated discs
  • Arthritis
  • Spondylolisthesis
  • Sacroiliac Joint Pain
  • Postlaminectomy syndrome
  • Another type of injury is vertebral compression fractures, which are typically a result of bones weakening due to osteoporosis.

How is low back pain treated?

Initial treatment programs for low back pain usually include physical therapies, stretching and strengthening exercises, activity modification and medication. Options such as trigger point therapy and regenerative medicine techniques, such as PRP (platelet-rich plasma) therapy, might also be helpful.

If your pain doesn’t improve using these approaches, Pacific Sports & Spine specializes in using treatments such as steroid injections and nerve blocks. Steroid medication reduces the swelling and inflammation in your spinal tissues, while nerve blocks contain an anesthetic that completely numbs the area. Examples include:

 

  • Epidural Steroid Injections: The epidural space is between the spinal cord and the vertebrae. This procedure uses a steroid-anesthetic mix to reduce low back pain. There are different types of epidurals, including lumbar transforaminal epidurals and caudal epidurals.
  • Lumbar Sympathetic Block: This procedure numbs the nerve branches in your lumbar spine. It has both treatment and diagnostic benefits.
  • Piriformis Injection: The piriformis muscle in your buttocks sometimes contracts and irritates the sciatic nerve. The symptoms of piriformis syndrome closely mimic those of sciatica, so a piriformis injection helps confirm the diagnosis.
  • Facet Joint Injection: A facet joint injection is a medical procedure in which a small amount of local anesthetic and steroid medication is injected directly into one or more facet joints of the spine. The facet joints are small joints located between the vertebrae of the spine that provide stability and allow for movement.

What can I do if my low back pain doesn’t improve?

While most people find conservative therapies and spinal injections effective in relieving low back pain, sometimes patients need further treatment. Pacific Sports & Spine offers an extensive range of cutting-edge treatment options for treatment-resistant low back pain, including:

  • Intracept® to treat painful degenerative disc disease and vertebrogenic pain
  • Kyphoplasty and Spinejack to repair vertebral compression fractures
  • Radiofrequency neurotomy of the lumbar facets
  • Superion® device for lumbar spinal stenosis
  • Minimally invasive lumbar decompression (mild®)
  • Reactiv8 to treat chronic back pain using restorative approach to neuromodulation
  • Nalu peripheral nerve stimulation to treat cluneal nerve pain for low back pain
  • ViaDisc allogratft to treat discogenic pain
  • Osteocool to treat malignant metastatic cancer pain related to compression fractures 
  • LINQ to treat sacroiliac joint pain

The precise treatment you need depends on the cause of your low back pain. Pacific Sports & Spine provides expert diagnostics on site. Call our office at (541) 780-6654 to schedule a patient appointment.