When a disc is herniated, it can press on your spine’s nerves. This results in weakness, numbness, and pain in areas including the arms, legs, and neck. Such symptoms may be tolerable but, in other instances, can be severe to the point of disrupting your life. The symptoms can sometimes resolve within a short period, typically a week. They can also improve with measures including over-the-counter medication and rest. If Hamilton herniated discs symptoms don’t go away or cause significant friction as you manage daily living activities, among the most effective strategy is interventional pain management.
Interventional pain management blocks the pain, making it easier to manage your activities with fewer challenges. This can help restore your quality of life. The common interventional pain management methods include injections, implantable, electrostimulation, and surgery. Among the top reasons to consider interventional pain management for herniated discs includes:
Faster relief
When you are in pain and battling other symptoms making it hardly possible to focus on your tasks, faster relief is what you crave. This is among the benefits interventional pain management delivers that make it appealing. Treatments such as injections can offer immediate relief or within a few days. This allows you to go about your routine easily.
Minimally invasive treatments
While surgical treatments are invasive, most interventional options are minimally or non-invasive. They can be done on an outpatient basis. Moreover, the methods can delay, if not eliminate, the need for a more invasive treatment down the line. Considering the many risks and complications of invasive treatments, interventional pain management, when viable, is a valuable option.
Treat the source
Approaches like over-the-counter medications only address the symptoms, not the cause. Moreover, since they have to go through the digestive system, they impact your whole body, which can lead to other health concerns. Interventional pain management eliminates such concerns. Most offer targeted treatments focused on the region and the pain’s root cause. An injection or therapy can be targeted to a specific part to address the pain and its cause, offering a safe and more effective solution.
Lasting results
Options like opioids only offer temporary relief. This means you have to keep taking the medication to keep the symptoms at bay. Interventional pain management methods such as corticosteroid injection offer relief that can last longer, typically months. Others, like spinal cord stimulation, can last for years. This is convenient and makes it easy to go about your days.
Fewer risks
Among the risks of turning to pain medication includes:
- Potential for developing dependency
- Overdose
- Impacts on your overall health
Long-term pain medication use also exposes you to the risk of more serious concerns such as cardiovascular disease. Since interventional pain management does not rely on such medications, you are not at risk of experiencing such risks and side effects.
Herniated discs and the consequential symptoms can lead to chronic pain. You can also experience complications such as reduced mobility, loss of bladder control, and sexual dysfunction, just to name a few. The right diagnosis and treatment, including interventional pain management, can help improve the situation. Visit or call Interventional Pain Management Associates today for more on herniated discs and available treatment options.
