A protruding spinal disc or a herniated disc can cause compression on the spinal cord or on the nerve roots of the spine. This compression can lead to pain symptoms, motor weakness and muscle atrophy. Treatment for the bulging disc depends on the severity of the symptoms.
Lifestyle Changes
Lifestyle changes can produce significant improvement in low back pain symptoms from a protruding disc. Patients who smoke should quit. Smoking causes the blood vessels that feed the nerves to constrict and this causes pain. Smoking also leads to degeneration of the disc material, allowing the spinal vertebrae to come closer together and compress nerves. Obesity increases the load on the spinal column. With an increased load, the disc bulges further into the spinal column and compresses the nerve. Loss of weight can relieve the load on the spinal column.
Conservative Management
Conservative management means treating the disc with over-the-counter medications, physical therapy and stretching exercises. Many patients find that back pain from a bulging disc resolves within a few days with rest and over-the-counter pain medications such as ibuprofen or acetaminophen. Continuing back pain can be treated with physical therapy. A physical therapist can apply heat or ice, use traction to relieve the compression and recommend appropriate stretching exercises. The physical therapist can demonstrate how to lift objects and move safely while the injury heals. Pilates exercises or yoga can also benefit those with a protruding spinal disc. These exercises can help strengthen the abdominal or core muscles so as to prevent the injury from recurring.
Surgery
Surgery is the last resort for a protruding disc, and is reserved for those patients with muscle weakness or pain in the lower extremities. According to MayoClinic.com, about 10 percent of people with bulging discs require surgery. Surgery should not be contemplated until conservative management has failed to improve symptoms. Most physicians will recommend a minimum of a six-week trial of medications and physical therapy before recommending surgery. Immediate surgery is required when there is loss of bowel or bladder control, paralysis occurs, or there are fragments of disc pressing against the spinal cord. Surgical techniques include removing the bulging disc, removing a small piece of the vertebra pressing on a nerve, or microdiscectomy, the use of a surgical microscope, which allows smaller incisions to remove the bulging disc.
