emiajamar

No offense to Emiajamar, but I think this statement must be taken with a grain of salt. Not all orthopedic surgeons have sufficient training in spine, thus not all will be adequately armed with the knowledge of how to optimally treat back pain; then again at the other end are some neurosurgeons who have a lot of training in the brain and spinal cord anatomy that their idea of treating back pain is to just remove the cause of the impingement on the spinal cord (and thus removing the cause of the pain), not realizing that they may be adding some instability to the spine by taking out too much bone or soft tissue and thus add to the back pain (which may be due to some inadequate knowledge of vertebral column biomechanics, which is actually more in the realm of orthopedics). I have seen morbidities of back pain patients from both neurosurgeons and orthopedic surgeons. Don't get me wrong, I know some good neurosurgeons who do excellent work. I also know some very good orthopedic spine surgeons. Sometimes, these people help each other out in difficult cases and actually complement each other - the neurosurgeons with their knowledge of the spinal cord anatomy, and the orthopedic spine surgeons with their grasp of vertebral column anatomy and biomechanics. So, I wouldn't say that one is better than the other, but rather each of these subspecialties have their own way of treating back pain. It is just that back pain is not caused by just one specific problem but by a myriad of possible pathologies of which some are best treated by an orthopedic spine surgeon and others by neurosurgeons. Rest assured, if you consult a competent (meaning properly trained!) neurosurgeon or orthopedic spine surgeon, he/she should know how to work up the patient, how to treat the patient, and when to refer to one or the other, should the need arise.

Hint-of-lime. I salute you for having stated that very eloquently. Basically it all comes down to choosing the right doctor for your particular ailment. MABUHAY :cool:

BTW, I forgot to mention, avoid any massages...

they may make things worse, lalo na yung mga hard massage

I would like to add that neurosurgeons are also similarly if not better than orthopedic surgeons in managing back pains whatever the cause maybe. Be it medical or surgical in nature.

From Emiajamar