About two-thirds of adults suffer from back pain at some period during their life. In Germany, statistically, almost every person visits a doctor at least once in his life because of severe back pain. This is also a huge social issue since back pain is associated with high costs, including those related to health care and indirect costs from missed work or reduced productivity.

Last year on February 9, the Department of Orthopedics and Traumatology of the University Hospital Bonn organized a large patient symposium. Affected and interested parties could find out about the general causes of back pain and their therapeutic options — both conservative and operative. In addition to questions about back pain, this event gave basic insights into the anesthesia and the postoperative pain therapy and the care on the ward. Patients had an opportunity to ask their questions directly to the professionals.

Back pain has numerous possible causes. Clinical studies suggest that the pain may originate from many spinal structures, including ligaments, facet joints, the muscular structures, blood vessels, and spinal nerve roots. Perhaps the most common are age-related degenerative processes in the intervertebral disks and facet joints. There are wide variations in care. This fact suggests that an optimal approach depends on various individual features of the patient. "It is very important to create an individual treatment concept for each patient with the different conservative and operative therapy options", says Professor Dieter C. Wirtz, the Head of the Clinic for Orthopedics and Traumatology of the University Hospital Bonn.

The main goal of health care professionals is to achieve maximal reduction in pain intensity as rapidly as possible, to restore the individual's ability to function in everyday activities, to help the patient cope with residual pain, to assess for side effects of therapy. There are many approaches to the treatment of back pain from non-pharmacologic and non-invasive therapies to alternative or surgical options.

The spinal orthopedics team headed by Prof. Robert Pflugmacher and senior physician Dr. Yorck Rommelspacher treats the entire spectrum of this popular ailment. Conservative therapy includes physiotherapy, pain management, and infiltration, in which a locally acting anesthetic is injected together with an anti-inflammatory drug directly to the pain point. However, if these methods result in no further complaint reduction, state-of-the-art therapy methods including minimally invasive, endoscopic surgery are options to consider. These methods on the contrary to older approaches are gentler for the patient as only small cuts are made. "Our goal is to make our patients fit again as soon as possible," says Prof. Wirtz.

Are you interested in learning more about the treatment methods discussed in this article? Contact us today to speak with a Medscout Healthcare Consultant. Medscout team will support you throughout the entire treatment course.