Have you been diagnosed with a lumbar disc herniation? and are not sure what you should do? Well we’re going to give you the latest research on this Back & Body video. Dr. Dave Perna here with Back & Body, your collaborative care approach of physical therapy, chiropractic and acupuncture medical care taking care of patients in the New York City area in Midtown, Manhattan on 58th and Lexington as well as in Springfield, New Jersey on US 22 taking care of people in Springfield, Westfield, Cranford, Summit, Scotch Plains.
Today we’re going to talk about a study from what is formally known as the British Medical Journal and now just goes by BMJ. They asked the question of “is patients who receive surgical intervention versus conservative care more of a benefit long term if you’re diagnosed with a lumbar herniated disc?” How they did this study is they took 370 patients and they evaluated them regarding their sciatic symptoms and overall quality of life while they experienced pain from their lumbar disc herniation. They followed them for 2 years, some of the people received surgery and some of the people received conservative care and they did some measurements after 104 weeks.
They’ve determined that there was no benefits over surgery versus conservative care during the long term followup. They said conservative care had the same long term effects as surgery for lumbar herniated disc. BMJ or formerly known as the British Medical Journal went further to say that this is really good news considering conservative care is much less expensive and there’s a lot less associated risks with doing conservative care.
As a side note, from personal clinical experience I can tell you recovery time from surgery takes time. Conservative measures of care do not have as many restrictions on the person. A lot of people feel as though the surgery is quick and easy answer. This study from BMJ, and it is recent, it is from December 2016, so this is a very recent study tells you that surgery is no more effective than conservative care long term. So if you look at the big picture, conservative care is the way to go. If you suffer from herniated disc causing low back pain or sciatica, try our combined care approach of chiropractic, physical therapy, and acupuncture. We offer these services in both New York City as well as in Springfield, New Jersey. We can be reached at 212-371-2000 in New York City or if you’re in Springfield in the Union County area, 908-325-3000. Hopefully we’ll see you soon.
