At the UK HealthCare Comprehensive Spine Center, our team of experts works together to create the treatment plan that best fits your specific needs.
This treatment plan will depend on several factors, including the symptoms you’re experiencing and the location and size of the cyst.
During this outpatient procedure, a small needle is guided into a facet joint with imaging. A steroid and pain reliever are injected to reduce inflammation in the joint to relieve pain.
Over-the-counter (OTC) pain relievers like ibuprofen (Advil, Motrin IB) or naproxen sodium (Aleve) might be helpful, but you should follow the instructions carefully. Using OTC pain relievers for too long or incorrectly can have serious side effects. If these don't relieve your pain, your doctor can recommend stronger prescription pain relievers.
Physical therapy plays a crucial role in effectively managing chronic back pain. At UK HealthCare, physical therapy is an integral part of many spine treatment plans. Our spine specialists work with therapy experts who specialize in musculoskeletal care. Together, they create a plan tailored for your unique needs.
A physical therapist can:
- Create a personalized exercise plan to enhance your flexibility and range of motion
- Strengthen your core muscles to maintain proper alignment
- Improve your posture
- Educate you on correct movement techniques and modifications to use during pain episodes, helping you to engage in your favorite activities while reducing the likelihood of recurring back pain
If conservative treatments haven’t helped your pain, a targeted injection might offer short-term relief. This injection includes a steroid to reduce swelling around the nerves and a numbing medicine to ease pain right away. While a steroid injection is effective, it's important to note that the pain relief typically lasts for one to two months.
At UK HealthCare, interventional pain management is an integral part of many spine treatment plans. Our spine specialists work with pain management experts specializing in musculoskeletal care to create a plan tailored for each patient's needs.
While these therapies often relieve the discomfort caused by a spinal cyst, that relief may not last. Symptoms can return as fluid and inflammation build back up.
In these cases, your doctor may suggest surgery to remove the cyst, relieving the pressure on the spine. Different types of procedures may be used, sometimes in combination.
Spinal decompression surgery is any of several surgery types that relieve compressed spinal nerves. During these procedures, doctors remove bones or disks to relieve pain and pressure.
Most decompressive surgeries are performed while patients are under general anesthesia. This allows for sleeping comfortably during the procedure. While the patient is asleep, the doctor will perform one of the following:
- Corpectomy: Removal of a whole disk or vertebra, as well as the disks above and below, often followed by a spinal fusion to stabilize the spine
- Discectomy: Removal of part of a disk to relieve nerve pressure
- Foraminotomy: Removal of bone or tissue to expand nerve root openings and relieve nerve pain
- Laminectomy or laminotomy: Removal of some or all of the spinal canal’s bony arches to expand the opening and relieve pressure
- Osteophyte removal: Removal of bone spurs to relieve pressure
After these procedures, you will stay in the hospital for one to five days as you recover.
This surgery is performed to stop movement between two or more vertebrae in the spine.
Before your spinal fusion, you will receive general anesthesia so that you sleep during the procedure. To perform this surgery, your surgeon may access your spine in one of three ways:
- On your back or neck above the spine: You will lie on your stomach, and your surgeon will make an incision over the area and move the muscles and tissues to the side to access the spine.
- On your side: If spinal fusion is being performed on your lower back, you may lie on your side to give the surgeon the best angle to access the spine in that area.
- On the front of the neck: If spinal fusion is on the neck, your surgeon may make an incision on the front part of your neck near the side.
The vertebrae will be fused together with:
- Bone graft placed along the back of the spine
- Bone graft material added between two or more vertebrae
- Implantable cages used between the vertebrae
The doctor may also stabilize the vertebrae with cages, plates, rods or screws until the grafts heal. The surgery usually takes three to four hours.
After your surgery, you will remain in the hospital for three or four days, and you will receive pain medicine to keep you comfortable. You may wear a back brace when you leave the hospital.
After surgery, you will need to stay off work for about four to six weeks as you recover, and you will be limited to very light activity. You may need physical therapy.
If you have tried other pain relief treatments and your spinal pain hasn’t improved, spinal fusion may work as a pain relief option. However, spinal fusion doesn’t provide pain relief for everyone, and it can increase pain.