Intervertebral disc herniation is a condition that occurs when part of a weakened intervertebral disc protrudes, compressing adjacent nerves in the spine and causing pain. The first line of treatment is non-surgical and has a high probability of resolution through this approach.

This is a highly painful and limiting clinical condition that often scares most people. Despite the intense pain you may be experiencing, the likelihood of it requiring surgery is less than 5%, and you will understand why by the end of this text.

It is an area where misdiagnoses are often made, leading to inadequate treatments.

Did you know that more than 80% of adults who have never experienced lower back or neck pain show disc herniations/protrusions on their imaging exams? This means that having an imaging exam indicating one or more disc herniations does not necessarily mean it is the cause of your pain. Various structures, such as muscles, can reproduce identical pain to that caused by a disc herniation, even if they are not injured.

So, how can you obtain a correct diagnosis that leads to appropriate treatment?

Whether or not a disc herniation is causing your symptoms will only be known through your clinical history, where we will understand the type of pain you have and how it manifests. Then, through scientifically validated clinical tests (more diagnostically accurate than an MRI) assessing the tension of your neural tissue, we can confirm or exclude the diagnosis.

In summary, disc herniations are diagnosed in the clinic and not through imaging exams.

In the case of a true and active disc herniation, the treatment varies according to the phase it is in: acute (1-6 weeks), sub-acute (6-12 weeks), and chronic (more than 12 weeks).

Disc herniations are a problem that frightens most people, commonly associated with the need for surgery. However, in over 90% of cases, surgery is not necessary, and improvement can be achieved with conservative treatment based on manual therapy, exercise, and pain education, which is what we do at Osteofocus.