With the passage of time, and influenced by our life habits or our genetics, our body ages, our bones and joints degenerate or wear out, including our spine, one of the great victims of the sedentary lifestyle that we have cultivated in this pandemic of Covid-19.
To this we must add that spinal pathologies and pain in the lower back, more specifically, represent one of the most frequent consultations in medical care services, an ailment that seriously reduces the quality of life of affected patients.
Dr. Ignacio Moya, spine surgeon at El Pilar Hospital in Barcelona
“Low back pain is one of the most frequent reasons for consultation in primary and specialized medical care. Of all its causes, degenerative processes of the lumbar spine are the most frequent. In addition, after the pandemic caused by COVID-19 and confinement, the sedentary lifestyle of the adult population has increased notably, leading to muscular insufficiency of the abdominal and erector muscles of the trunk”, explains the spine surgeon at El Pilar Hospital in Barcelona, Dr. Ignacio Moya.
In the case of the spine, this expert indicates that the joints that are located between the vertebrae are the ‘facet joints’ and due to this wear or degeneration described above, what is known as facet arthrosis is favored. “Among the degenerative processes of the spine, one of the most frequent is overload or facet arthrosis. The facets are the joints that each vertebra has with the two adjacent ones (upper and lower). These joints have two sheets of cartilage that slide each time we flex or extend the trunk, and they reach their greatest collapse with the extension of the trunk”.
Image of a case of facet arthrosis
Symptoms
With this, the Quirónsalud specialist maintains that facet wear or osteoarthritis is characterized by pain, and specifies that specifically there is low back pain that worsens especially when we stand or walk for a long time, and with the extension of the trunk, and which can also radiate to the buttocks or the back of the thigh. Instead, he maintains that the pain improves when the patient is lying down at rest and when leaning forward.
Low back pain is one of the most frequent reasons for consultation in primary and specialized medical care
“Their diagnosis, in addition to being clinical, with the certification of the symptoms, is confirmed by imaging tests such as lumbar magnetic resonance imaging, which reveals the exact location of the degeneration of the facet cartilage,” adds Dr. Moya.
treatment pathways
“Despite the fact that the initial treatment should consist of exercise, medication or rehabilitation, in a high percentage of patients with facet arthrosis the pain persists,” says the surgeon.
Specialists are increasingly opting for non-invasive surgical techniques for the treatment of degenerative problems of the skeleton
For this reason, he says that specialists are increasingly advocating non-invasive surgical techniques for the treatment of degenerative problems of the skeleton. “For a long time, arthroscopy has been shown to be a useful, safe and minimally invasive technique for the treatment of degenerative pathology of the knee, hip, shoulder or ankle, for example,” according to several specialists.
Fast recovery
He clarifies that to carry out this technique, only an incision of between one and three millimeters in the skin is required through which an endoscope is inserted to explore the joint. It is a very small opening, so that the risk of infection or subsequent bleeding is much lower than that of conventional operations.
“It consists of direct visualization of the joint with a camera while, through another portal, the necessary procedures are carried out to surgically treat the injury causing the pain”, adds the spine surgeon.
Although the initial treatment should consist of exercise, medication or rehabilitation, in a high percentage of patients with facet arthrosis the pain persists
Moreover, the expert from Hospital El Pilar highlights that in Europe and in our environment there are many surgeons who are opting for spinal endoscopy to treat low back pain that arises as a result of degenerative processes such as lumbar facet arthrosis, such as case of Dr. Moya, an expert in performing this advanced technique within the line of non-invasive surgeries to treat and respond to patients affected by facet lumbar pain.
“It is a safe technique with clinical results confirmed in the international scientific literature”, values the expert, while highlighting the prompt recovery of patients, some even on the same day, and practically without postoperative pain, as well as minimal aggression of the tissues or the reduction to practically zero of the risk that conventional surgeries do present.
This innovative intervention does not entail absolute rest for the patient either, so that many, even days after this minimally invasive procedure, can resume their work activity, and even return to sports a few months later.