Disc issues

I have been diagnosed with degenertive disc disease and severe focale disease. I also have a protruding disc in the L4 L5 and S1 which is pressing on the nerve roots and against the spinal cord. I have been through physical therapy without much luck and have been seeing a pain specialist who has put me on a combination of oxycotin and percocet along with zanaflex to help relieve the pain. I also have severe back spasms daily. The pain specialist is now wanting to burn my nerve root to deaden it to see if that will help with the pain. My question is.Would surgery be a better and option. I guess I have reached the point where I am tired of treating the symtoms (symptoms) and want to fix the problem. I want my life back and I dont want to be on pain meds and in pain for the rest of my life HELP.


This discussion is related to protruding disc/to treat or not to treat.

[Dr. A. Srivastava]

Thank you for your question. I do sympathize with your health concern. Degeneration of spinal disc occurs as age progresses and this can occur at any level of spine. Therefore, this makes disc more fragile and slight pressure may lead to disc prolapse. As a result of prolapse or injury, nerve impingement may cause intermittent low back pain, leg or thigh pain, numbness or tingling of the buttocks and loss on bowel/bladder control(if severe disc degeneration). The pain originates due to degenerative disc disease is usually treated with heat compression, rest, rehabilitative exercises and pain killer medications. In addition, surgical treatment like discectomy, spinal fusion, and spinal laminectomy may be the last resort in most of the non-resolving cases. . I would recommend you to see a neurologist who can evaluate the details of your case and could better determine the insight of your situation.