LAHORE, Jan 11 (APP): Executive Director, Punjab Institute of Neuro Sciences Prof Dr Khalid Mahmood has said that common perception of back pain and spinal cord diseases is not correct and daily exercise should be normal routine while weight loss and other precautions are also important.
Delivering a lecture to medical students at PINS auditorium here Saturday, he said that bad posture and the natural degeneration of disc cause backache, adding that patients need proper investigations to diagnose the cause of backache and sciatica and to decide the modality of treatment either with drugs, physiotherapy or microsurgery.
During the lecture, he explained that in most cases, there was no specific cause for back pain and 90 percent of patients recover themselves over time due to physiotherapy and simple medicines.
He said that if the backache extends from the waist down to the knees and feet, then it was not simple backache and may need surgical treatment.
Operation could be decided after proper diagnosis with MRI and other related tests, he said and added that patients did not need to be afraid of spinal surgery as the most sophisticated ways and modern methods of operation had been introduced, in which, keyhole surgery were done using endoscope and cameras through 2cm skin incision giving least damage to normal structures.
The common notion that disc surgery is usually unsuccessful is absolutely incorrect, he added.
Prof Khalid made it clear that these techniques were being used regularly at Punjab Institute of Neuro Sciences.
He said, “We perform nearly 2000 spinal surgeries at PINS each year which includes disc surgery and surgery for spinal tumors, trauma and TB including complex congenital spinal diseases”.
The PINS is considered a last resort of a common man for ultimate diagnosis and treatment of above mentioned diseases, he added.
