What are the most common disc extrusion risk factors? Anyone concerned about promoting a healthy spine and avoiding back pain over the years may be interested in the answer to this question, as an extruded disc can cause a number of painful symptoms. However, the short answer is that the predominant risk factor for developing an extruded disc is something nobody can avoid: aging.
How Does Aging Cause Disc Extrusion?
Over the years, natural wear and tear on your spinal anatomy – joints, bones, discs, ligaments, etc. – causes degeneration. In the discs, this means that water content and height are lost, which can cause a disc to extrude, or bulge, past its normal boundary. This form of degenerative disc disease is unavoidable, since you simply can’t turn back the clock on the aging process. However, just because you have an extruded disc does not mean you will experience any symptoms. Only when the bulging disc presses on nearby spinal nerves or the spinal cord itself will symptoms present. What are these symptoms?
Symptoms
The symptoms most commonly associated with an extruded disc include:
- Pain localized at the site of neural compression
- Pain that travels throughout the nerve being pinched
- Weakness
- Numbness
- Tingling
Treatment Options
While everyone is technically at risk for developing a disc extrusion, since everyone inevitably gets older, that doesn’t mean you can’t treat the resulting symptoms. Typically, conservative treatments like pain medication, hot/cold therapy, physical therapy, and others are very effective at managing symptoms. However, if weeks or months of conservative treatments have failed to ease your pain, contact Laser Spine Institute today. Our innovative endoscopic procedures are minimally invasive alternatives to open back surgery.
