Spine Care

Most back and neck pain will get better with rest, over-the-counter medicines and appropriate exercise. See a doctor if your pain is severe, if it lasts more than a couple of weeks, if you have trouble urinating, or if you have weakness, pain or numbness in your legs or arms. If you experience paralysis, call 911 immediately.

The most common cause of back pain is poor lifting technique. Other major causes are automobile accidents, sports injuries and diving accidents. Aging often causes pain as the bones, disks and ligaments that form the spine weaken. Here are some tips to help you prevent back and neck pain:

• When lifting, use good body mechanics. Use your legs to do most of the work, and keep the load as close to your body as possible. If the object is heavier than you can comfortably handle or an awkward size or shape, don’t do it alone — use team lifting.
• At your desk or home, organize your workspace so that the items you need most are easy to reach. Minimize the need to bend, twist or over-reach.
• Commit to regular exercise. Everyone should get at least 30 minutes a day of moderate cardiovascular exercise such as walking, bicycling or swimming. It’s also important to keep the muscles of your back and abdomen – your body’s core – in good shape. Talk to your doctor or visit St. Mary’s Wellness Center.
• Always wear lap and shoulder belts when driving or riding in a car, and be sure infants and small children are correctly secured in an approved, correctly installed car seat.
• Motorcyclists and bicyclists should always wear approved helmets to minimize the risk of head injury.
• When playing sports, use appropriate protective gear. Be sure to stay well hydrated to help protect the disks that cushion the bones of your back and neck.
• Never dive into shallow or murky water. Never dive or jump into water where another person may be swimming.

• Herniated disk: When one of the cushioning disks in the spine bulges or ruptures, it can cause severe pain in the back and/or legs.
• Disk degeneration: Usually associated with aging, disk degeneration can pinch the spinal cord and nerve roots.
• Lumbar spinal stenosis: Narrowing of the canal that protects the spinal cord and nerve roots may cause numbness and weakness.
• Spondylolisthesis: A vertebra that slips out of alignment may squeeze the spinal cord and/or nerve roots.

Treatment options include medicines to relieve pain and inflammation, physical and occupational therapy, and surgery. New developments in back and neck surgery, like St. Mary’s O-arm Multidimensional Imaging System, make this option more effective than ever before. Your doctor will work with you to create the treatment plan that is best for you.

The O-arm combines mobility, low-dose x-ray imaging and ultra-fast image processing to provide live 3-D navigation during surgery. It enables the surgeon to obtain highly detailed images of the surgical site in seconds, all without moving the patient. The result is more accurate placement of spinal hardware, often with smaller incisions, shorter surgical time, less pain and faster recovery than is possible with older technologies.

Guiding spine surgeons through complex surgeries, the O-arm features a number of innovations that make it superior to the familiar C-arm fluoroscopes currently used in most surgical suites. These innovative capabilities include:

• A ring-shaped gantry that can be opened and closed, allowing the O-arm to be moved into position without moving the patient
• An imaging ring that can be tilted and angled to capture images not possible with older, more limited systems
• A large digital flat-panel screen in the surgical suite for immediate viewing to assist the surgeon with positioning in real time
• Programmable re-positioning and ultra-fast imaging to reduce the exposure of patients and staff to x-rays
• Detailed 3-D images of the surgical site, available to the surgeon within seconds. This capability is especially useful in confirming that hardware has been ideally placed, helping to reduce the need for later revisions
• The ability to partner the O-arm system with St. Mary’s StealthStation neurosurgical platform to provide seamless, fully-integrated imaging and surgical capability

Currently, St. Mary’s is using the O-arm primarily for spinal fusions, which help patients who experience neck or back pain that is caused by injuries, disk degeneration, or spondylolisthesis, commonly known as “slipped disk”.

The O-arm is manufactured and distributed by the Navigation division of Medtronic, Inc. Medtronic is the world’s largest medical device and technology company, and a leading provider of minimally invasive computer-assisted surgery and intra-operative imaging solutions.