Doc adopts non-invasive treatment for chronic back pain

She said the treatment will come as a new hope for patients who have not got relief from chronic pain even after undergoing operation and treatment for years.

Ghai said she learned this new technique during her educational trip to London .

There she performed five such minimally invasive procedures,under the supervision of senior doctors.

At PGIMER,the doctor performed first of this procedure on a BSF soldier,some nine months back. The doctor said that he was in immense pain and was not responding to medicines,exercises,multiple injections in the spine for around four years. Finally I decided to perform this procedure on him. He has shown a good response.

“Second time,this procedure was performed on a young lady who did not respond to all medicines,physiotherapy,multiple spine injections and exercises for around three years. This patient has shown a improvement and a long-term result is awaited,” she said.

The equipment used for this procedure costs around Rs 50,000 (in addition to cost of treatment) and it has to be purchased by the patient.

“The procedure is usually performed in an out-patient clinic and takes 20-30 minutes. In most cases,a patient will be able to go home the same day. There is small wound that requires only a Band-Aid leaving one with virtually no scar. The typical recovery time is one week,” the doctor said.

Low back pain has become commonplace in these times. At any times,about 25 per cent of adults have low back pain and up to 90 per cent of all people experience back pain at some stage of their lives.

Prolapsed disc is the most common cause. Various treatments non-surgical and surgical are available,but non-surgical with minimal interventions are now preferred as the result of surgical treatment have not yielded success.

Dr Raj Bahadur,head,department of orthopaedics,PGIMER,said,“Minimally-invasive procedures focus on the magnification and elimination of the area. These procedures have not scored statistically over the results of fenestration. With minimally-invasive procedures,only extended material is removed and from the vent of annulus again the nuclear material comes out due to day-to-day work.”