We have provided a number of pages detailing conditions to assist and inform our valued clients.
The spine is a complex structure with many moving parts and supporting muscular anatomy. It is the primary skeletal structure of the body and as such has a number of important roles to play, including bearing load and protecting the spinal cord. It consists of 7 cervical vertebrae in the neck, 12 thoracic vertebrae in the chest, 5 lumbar vertebrae, a sacrum and coccyx.
Read more about The Spine - Basic Anatomy and MechanicsAcute Disc Prolapse is when the disc can bulge into the spinal cord at the back either in a contained fashion, or in an extruded or sequestered fashion. This problem may be caused by normal wear and tear due to age, or it may be caused in young adults have not yet undergone any significant degeneration, but who suffer a massive trauma to a disc due to misadventure.
Read more about Acute Disc ProlapseIn 2008 the United States Agency for Healthcare Research and Quality (AHRQ) recorded 3.4 million hospital visits for back pain and related symptoms - an average of 9400 per day. The aetiology (cause) of back pain is not complex. A great myth has arisen about the causes of back pain mostly driven by a historical lack of ability to treat it.
Read more about Causes of Back and Neck PainRadiculopathy is simply a medical term for nerve damage. The word 'sciatica' is best avoided. Sciatica is a purely descriptive term to describe pain in the region of the sciatic nerve. Many nerves in the lumbar spine can be damaged as a result of degenerative disc disease (DDD) or Internal Disc Disruption (IDD).
Read more about RadiculopathyTwo words which often go together are scoliosis and kyphosis. It is normal for the thoracic spine to have a kyphotic curve. Excessive kyphosis however is a disabling condition. Scoliosis is a deformity of the spine in the coronal plane. Front on, in the coronal plane, the spine should be pretty straight.
Read more about Scoliosis and KyphosisSpondylolisthesis is a deformity of the spine where one vertebral body has slipped forward or backward on the other. Anterolisthesis describes a forward slip and retrolisthesis describes a backward slip. Read more about Spondylolisthesis
