Back Pain

Living with continual or recurring back pain limits your activities and may stop you from working. If you’re looking for a solution to troublesome back pain, visit fellowship-trained Dmitriy Buyanov, MD, and his team at Premier Pain Consultants in San Antonio, Texas. They specialize in conservative care and minimally invasive interventional pain management procedures to reduce back pain and improve mobility. Call Premier Pain Consultants today to arrange a comprehensive back pain evaluation or book an appointment online.

What’s causing my back pain?

Acute back pain occurs immediately if you suffer an injury. Playing sports, work and auto accidents, and falls can cause acute injuries. You can also hurt your back by twisting awkwardly or lifting using the incorrect technique.

Muscles and connective tissues stretch and tear, and the discs between your vertebrae can herniate. Severe injuries might involve fractures and spinal cord damage.

Chronic back pain develops gradually. The most common causes are:

• Facet joint arthritis
• Degenerative disc disease
• Lumbar radiculopathy (sciatica)
• Spondylolisthesis (slipping vertebrae)
• Spinal stenosis

Stenosis means narrowing. It reduces the space in your spinal canal, which surrounds the delicate spinal cord. Damaged discs and changes resulting from arthritis often cause stenosis.

In many cases, back pain stems from nerve damage or compression. The peripheral nerves around your body have roots in your spinal cord, from where they pass through small gaps in the vertebrae.

Herniated disc material, thickened ligaments, bone spurs, and other abnormalities that compress the nerves result in pain, numbness, weakness, and unpleasant burning, prickling, and tingling sensations. In the lower back, these symptoms might spread into your hips, buttocks, and one or both legs.

What can I do about my back pain?

If you have a mild, acute injury, then taking it easy for a few days, applying ice packs, and using anti-inflammatory medication like ibuprofen should resolve the problem. However, more severe or long-lasting back pain requires a proper diagnosis.

The Premier Pain Consultants team specializes in assessing and treating back pain. They complete a detailed physical exam, review your medical history, and discuss your symptoms to narrow down the pain’s likely cause.

You might also need an X-ray, CT scan, MRI, or other diagnostic procedure. These tests enable your provider to confirm their diagnosis and evaluate the problem’s extent and severity. With all this information, they can prepare a personalized treatment plan to address your back pain.

What treatments will ease my back pain?

Premier Pain Consultants offers conservative and interventional back pain treatments, including:

• Physical therapy
• Anti-inflammatory medication
• Activity modification
• Steroid injections
• Nerve blocks
• Ketamine infusions
• Radiofrequency ablation
• Spinal cord stimulation

The treatments your provider uses vary depending on your condition’s cause and how it affects you, but they typically start with the least invasive options.

Call Premier Pain Consultants today or book an appointment online for expert back pain relief.