Also known as slipped disc and ruptured disc, the herniated disc occurs when bones in your spine move backwards. Learn more about the cause and prevention of a herniated disc in this medical treatment video.
DR. ALEX VALADKA: Today, we're here to talk about slipped disks or herniated disks or ruptured disks. These are all terms that basically refer to the same thing which is one of the disks between the bones in your spine has moved backwards. The bones in your spine are called the vertebrae, and in between each one there's this little shock absorber, a mass of softer tissue. And as we get older, many of us will develop very small disk herniations. And MRI scanning has made it so easy to look at people that we see many, many people with a small disk ruptured or disk bulge just 2 or 3 millimeters, usually that doesn't cause any problems. What is a lot more concerning though is when that disk rupture is actually big enough to push on a nerve. So here on this model of a spine, if this is the front of the spine here and this is the back, you see here is one bone and here is another. This is a disk right here, and this opening here is where a large nerve comes out. Again, you see that on each disk, one nerve comes out, so one down here, one down here. And if the disk pushes back and it's large enough or even if it's small but catches a nerve in just the right spot, it can cause a lot of pressure on the nerve. In contrary to popular belief, you don't need to have been in a bad accident or try to lift a few hundred pounds, you can just wake up all of a sudden with horrible pain running down your leg. In most cases, the pain may be noticeable in your back and in your buttocks, in your thigh, but it's especially bad going on the back of your leg down to your toes. This is what's called sciatica. Fortunately, a lot of those acute episodes will resolve with just some bed rest, maybe some medications, taking it easy for a few days. And as the inflammation in the nerve decreases, patients feel a lot better. And even if the MRI shows a very large disk rupture, if the patient is feeling better we often don't do anything. However, if the pain just recurs and keeps coming back or just persisting, gets worse and worse, or if someone has a legitimate emergency like they develop weakness in their foot or toes and can't walk well then we would operate. It's usually a small incision right in the back here that comes down right on top of the ligaments back here. They're over the nerve. We identify the nerve, pull it aside, take out the disk and that's it. Most patients wake up just fine. As an intermediary step, sometimes some injections into the nerve root can help take care some of the pain. Those may help. Hopefully, they will help for a long time; but if not, surgery is always an option. So again, in summary, these are very common. And even if someone wakes up or suddenly develops horrible pain down their leg, there's a good chance that that will resolve without any kind of surgery. But in case it just doesn't go away or symptoms get worse, surgery is always an option to get you back to your life as soon as possible.
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