Understanding Chronic Pain: Causes, Symptoms, and Treatment Options

Acute pain typically lasts for a short duration of time, usually less than 3 to 6 months. It also tends to be related to soft-tissue injury or temporary illnesses, so it typically subsides after the injury or illness heals.

When acute pain from an injury or illness doesn’t heal correctly, it can evolve into chronic pain.

Experiencing occasional aches and pains is normal. Pain is your body’s way of alerting you to a possible injury. Unlike acute pain, Chronic pain can last from several weeks to years, sometimes even decades (if left untreated).

Chronic pain can limit the body’s mobility and make it challenging for people to get through their daily tasks and activities. It also causes significant psychological and emotional trauma.

You can watch a comprehensive video on what causes back pain here:

Every day millions of people across the United States experience back pain. Back pain can occur when there’s a traumatic injury to a disc in the spine, which causes annular tears to form. The pressure on the disc causes herniation of the nucleus pulposus through the annular tear. This causes inflammatory tissue to develop within the annular tear, causing back pain. The inflamed annular tear generates pain signals. When this occurs, additional injuries can cause symptoms to worsen. Inflammation from the annular tear can spread to nearby nerve roots, causing leg pain. Signals travel up nerves to the brain, causing localized back pain. 

You can watch a comprehensive video on what causes neck pain here:

Over 30% of adults in the US suffer from neck pain. Neck pain occurs when a traumatic injury of a disc in the spine causes an annular tear to form. Pressure on the disc causes herniation of the nucleus pulposus through the annular tear. This causes inflammatory tissue to develop within the annular tear, causing neck pain. The inflamed annular tear generates pain signals. Additional injuries can cause worsening symptoms. Inflammation from the annular tear can spread to the nearby nerve root, causing arm pain. Pain signals travel up the nerves to the brain, causing localized neck pain. 

Deuk Laser Disc Repair is an alternative to dangerous invasive spine surgeries like total disc replacement and spinal fusion. It is the most advanced laser surgery in the world.

This revolutionary procedure was developed by Dr. Ara Deukmedjian MD, a world-renowned neuro-spine surgeon and a true pioneer in minimally invasive, laser, and endoscopic back and neck pain treatment.  

Deuk Laser Disc Repair is a form of endoscopic spine surgery performed in a state-of-the-art surgery center under sedation while the patient relaxes. This procedure does not compromise or weaken the health and integrity of the spine.

If you have a herniated or bulging disc or chronic back or neck pain, submit your MRI for a free review. 

To get started, Deuk Laser Disc Repair requires a very small incision, less than a quarter inch long. A cylindrical rod called a dilator is inserted in the small opening to gently spread the muscle to create a small passage and guide through which the surgery is performed endoscopically. The tip of the dilator is advanced into the symptomatic disc through the tear in the annulus where the herniation originates, and a tube called the retractor slides over the dilator and is carefully positioned into the painful disc. The rest of the entire Deuk laser disc repair surgery will occur inside this narrow tube.

To access the spine, an endoscopic camera is inserted into the tubular retractor to allow the surgeon to guide the laser inside each symptomatic disc. This process ensures that bones and surrounding tissues are not damaged, unlike traditional spinal fusions, microdiscectomy

and artificial discs.

The Holmium YAG laser used in the Deuk laser disc repair is manipulated accurately with millimeter precision under endoscopic visualization to remove only painful inflammatory tissue from the back of the disc. The laser is precisely used to remove damaged disc material that is causing the pain. This process is called debridement of the annular tear and Dr. Ara Deukmedjian MD was the first in the world to use and publish this technique.

Once the laser has removed the inflamed painful part of the annular tear and the herniated nucleus pulposus, the endoscope and tubular retractor are removed, leaving less than one-quarter inch incision in the skin, which can be closed with a single stitch and a band-aid. 

The total time for the Deuk laser disc repair surgery is one hour, and the patient is in recovery for about 45 to 60 minutes before being released to go home. Hospitalization is not needed and the risks of hospital-based surgery are avoided. 

Also, with the Deuk laser disc repair, there’s no loss of normal movement, and the flexibility of the disc and joint is preserved. With endoscopic Deuk laser disc repair there is no fusion, metal implants or biological material added to the spine. The procedure is all natural allowing your body to heal the herniated or bulging disc itself.

After the surgery, the Deuk laser disc repair patient is back home, enjoying life with a speedy recovery allowing normal activities without pain. Another advantage of Deuk laser disc repair is that no opioids or powerful narcotic painkillers are needed after surgery. Open spine surgeries like microdiscectomy, laminectomy, artificial disc replacement and fusion all cause so much internal trauma that patients are in severe pain after surgery and must take painkillers for weeks after their surgery but not with Deuk laser disc repair.

While we treat a variety of spinal conditions, we ultimately treat chronic pain. We understand that becoming pain-free can feel like being reborn. At Deuk Spine Institute, we use world-class interventional pain management techniques, therapy, and groundbreaking surgeries such as Deuk Laser Disc Repair to free our patients from chronic pain.

For more information about Deuk Spine Institute and to begin your path towards living a pain-free life → click here to visit our website or submit your MRI for a free review.