Feb 21, 2006 5:24 pm US/Eastern
New Treatment For Chronic Back Pain
by Dr. Mallika Marshall
(CBS4)
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Surgeons replace the damaged disc with a plastic one.
CBS
It's a hard job, but Roxie Mcgrath is thrilled to work at the warehouse.
Just a year ago she was crippled with lower back pain.
"A sharp stabbing pain and then it would go down the back of the leg. I ended up using a cane."
Roxie had a condition that affects millions of Americans. One of the rubbery discs cushioning the vertabrae in her spine ruptured and collapsed.
"And as it does this you lose the space for the exiting nerve roots. They become pinched and this flattens like a car tire going flat."
Roxie's surgeon decided to replace the flat with a "spare".
The damage disc is removed and replaced with a plastic artificial disc.
The device was recently approved by the FDA.
New England Baptist Hospital Surgeon Dr. Louis Jenis was one of the doctors involved in the trials.
He says the plastic disk is not for everyone, but it offers an alternative to the traditional surgery called fusion.
"They are essentially free to do their activities by three months or so...typically with a fusion we have to wait six months to a year to allow those activities."
Doctors still consider surgery a last resort for patients with back pain.
But the artificial disc can mean new hope for people like Roxy.
(© MMVI, CBS Broadcasting Inc. All Rights Reserved.)
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