If your back pain has lasted months, you’ve probably tried your fair share of heating pads, activity changes, and over-the-counter remedies. At some point, you want more than another temporary fix. You want to understand what’s hurting and what you can actually do about it.
The good news is that chronic back pain doesn’t automatically mean surgery.
At CurePain in Southern California, David Wu, MD, specializes in interventional pain management. Rather than using the same treatment for every aching back, he starts by identifying the source of your symptoms and builds a treatment plan around your diagnosis, health, and goals.
Depending on what’s causing your pain, these five nonsurgical approaches may be part of that plan.
When your back hurts, moving less can feel like the safest choice. But prolonged inactivity can contribute to weakness and stiffness, making everyday movement even harder.
Physical therapy can help you strengthen the muscles supporting your spine, improve flexibility and mobility, and gradually return to activities that pain has pushed out of your life. The right exercises depend on what’s causing your symptoms, which is another reason diagnosis comes first.
Platelet-rich plasma (PRP) takes a different approach to chronic pain treatment. Instead of using medication to temporarily reduce symptoms, PRP uses a concentrated portion of your own blood containing platelets and growth factors involved in the body’s natural healing processes.
Dr. Wu may consider PRP for certain musculoskeletal sources of chronic back pain. Recent research has found encouraging results for PRP injections in some people with chronic low back pain, including disc-related pain. However, studies are still limited, and researchers continue working to determine who benefits most.
PRP isn’t appropriate for every aching back. As with the other treatments we offer, the first step is identifying what’s causing your pain and determining whether the targeted tissue is likely to respond to this approach.
When inflammation or irritated nerves contribute to your symptoms, Dr. Wu may consider an injection targeted to a particular area.
CurePain offers options including epidural steroid and facet joint injections. These treatments aren’t interchangeable, and they aren’t appropriate for every type of chronic back pain. Their usefulness depends heavily on the source of your symptoms.
That’s why Dr. Wu first determines whether your pain comes from a nerve, disc, joint, or another structure before recommending an interventional procedure.
Sometimes the problem isn’t just inflammation. Specific nerves may be carrying persistent pain signals from an affected spinal joint.
Radiofrequency ablation uses controlled heat to affect targeted nerve tissue and reduce its ability to transmit those signals. Dr. Wu may consider RFA for carefully selected people with certain sources of chronic back pain.
It’s minimally invasive, but that doesn’t make it the right choice for everyone. Diagnostic evaluation and, when appropriate, testing to identify the pain-generating nerves help determine whether this approach makes sense.
What happens when chronic pain continues despite more conservative treatments?
For selected types of persistent pain, Dr. Wu may consider spinal cord stimulation (SCS). A spinal cord stimulator delivers mild electrical impulses near the spinal cord that alter pain signaling.
One advantage is that you don’t have to commit to a permanent device right away. Spinal cord stimulation typically begins with a temporary trial so you and Dr. Wu can evaluate how well it controls your pain before considering implantation.
No single nonsurgical treatment works best for everyone with chronic back pain. A therapy that makes sense for nerve-related leg pain may be completely different from one used for pain originating in a spinal joint.
That’s why the first step isn’t choosing a procedure. It’s figuring out what’s actually causing your symptoms.
At CurePain, Dr. Wu combines diagnostic evaluation with conservative and interventional pain-management options to develop a plan around you. If chronic back pain is interfering with work, sleep, exercise, or the things you enjoy, contact one of our Southern California offices to schedule an evaluation and find out which nonsurgical options may be appropriate for you.
