Personal Injury Attorney Ben Schwartz and Dr. Ganesh Balu M.D. answer a viewer’s question as it relates to Alternatives to Surgery for Low Back Pain after a car accident.

Hi Folks, I’m Attorney Ben Schwartz

Today we’ve got a special guest, Dr. Ganesh Balu, MD. Dr. Balu agreed to come on and shoot a quick video with us to give some information about spinal procedures.

Ben says:
So, doctor, today we are going to answer a viewer question. Roger in Wilmington, Delaware gave us this question. He said he had an automobile accident. He was injured in an automobile accident last year and ever since, he’s had severe low back pain but not radiating pain. It does not go down into his legs. He says that his doctor said he needs a lumbar spine discectomy and fusion surgery. As a result, he is going to be out of work for weeks if not several months and he is looking around for alternatives to a discectomy and fusion spinal surgery. So, I figured you are the man to address this question. What are your thoughts on patients looking for less invasive procedures to deal with low back pain?

Dr. Balu says:
Yeah, that is a common situation that patients like Roger meet with after any painful accident. So the patient would have gone through an MRI that would have shown herniated disc. The spine surgeon would be suggesting or recommending a spine fusion surgery with or without discectomy.

So, where we come in as Interventional Pain Physicians is to offer alternative treatments. The first thing we want to find out is which disc is causing the pain and where is the pain generator and how bad is the disc injury. We offer a procedure called discogram where we insert needles into the disc, and shoot a die to see if the disc is completely together, if it is torn, or where the pain is coming from. After this test, patients will go through a CT scan and then we present them with alternative treatments for the painful disc.

Ben says:
So what kind of treatments, once you identify which disc is causing the pain, what kind of treatments can you do to try to help the patient avoid having to undergo surgery?

Dr. Balu says:
The simplest injection that we offer is called intradiscal injection where we inject a numbing medication mixed with or without steroid. But, in addition, there are other treatments that we can offer for intradiscal therapies with this diagnosis of discogenic low back pain.

Ben says:
What kind of other procedures are there?

Dr. Balu says:
Another procedure that comes to my mind is to inject various other forms of treatments like plasma-rich protein injections. How many refer to as PRP. Sometimes we do stem cell injections to relieve pain and make an attempt to regrow the tissue that is injured inside the disc. In addition, we offer small percutaneous minimally invasive surgery that does not involve any incision at all. They are called percutaneous discotheques.

Ben says:
When you have a percutaneous discectomy, are you actually able to remove the disc material that is pushing on nerves causing pain?

Dr. Balu says:
Oh yes, so let me show with a model here. Assuming that this is a painful disc we have always already identified it from a discogram. We insert a small probe called a discectomy probe. Once it’s inside that disc we turn this on so that it scrapes part of the disc material inside and it comes out. There’s no incision, there’s no surgery and patients can look forward to getting at least 60% or 70% pain relief.

Ben says:
This is a procedure that does not take out the entire disc material between the vertebral bones between the vertebrae. It takes out, say perhaps broken off disc material is that correct or bulging out disc material?

Dr. Balu says:
Yeah, I think I would say judging by this material, the disc is now causing pressure on the nerve and the spinal cord. The idea here is to decompress the disc by taking part of the disc material out so that the natural healing process can kick in and patients can get better without a major spinal fusion surgery.

Ben says:
Doctor, we are in your office in Dover, Delaware. You also have an office in Wilmington, Delaware. Is that correct?

Dr. Balu says:
Yes sir!

Ben says:
Do you do these procedures in both locations?

Dr. Balu says:
Yes sir! We have offices in Wilmington, Dover, and also Lewes. This is an office-based procedure that can be safely done in an office setting.

Ben says:
Well, I very much appreciate you coming on and doing this video and asking Roger’s question. If folks want to get a hold of you to learn more about these procedures, do you have a website they can go to? Or what is the best way to get a hold of your office?

Dr. Balu says:
Yes sir, we have a website, it is www.painrehab.net. There is enough information for patients to seek care from us if they are thinking of such treatments.

Ben says:
Great! Well, thank you very much. Folks, I’m Attorney Ben Schwartz. Roger, thank you for the great question, and I’m really glad we are able to get ahold of Dr. Balu and answer it in video format. If you are watching this video and you have a question for me that you think, you know, something pertaining to personal injury, car accidents, work injuries, the injuries or the treatment that go along with those types of incidents or those types of matters send me an email, my email is ben.schwartz@SchwartzAndSchwartz.com. We will see if we can get a video made for you too.

Thanks for watching!

Dr. Balu says:
Thank you.