As many as 55 senior citizens attended a health talk on spine disease today. The talk was organized by Alchemist Hospital, Panchkula in collaboration of Senior Citizen Association, Pinjore.
Speaking during talk, Dr Harsimrat Bir Singh Sodhi, consultant-Neurosurgery said that elderly patients are more prone to spine related problems, owing to age related degenerative changes in disc dehydration, hypertrophy and osteophytes. These all changes combine to produce nerve related pain and compressive of nerves at their exit foramina (canal stenosis).
Dr Sodhi further said that these changes can occur in the whole spine from neck to lower back when upper spine is affected or cervical spondylitis, patients’ experience pain in the arms, weakness in hand grip, or tightness of both legs. If similar changes occur in lower spine , there occurs pain in the back, pain in any of the legs or difficulty in walking. Elderly patients also suffer from osteoporotic fractures, due to decreased bone density with age. This leads to backache and worsening bent posture of the back, asserted Dr Sodhi.
He stressed the role of physiotherapy and regular exercise in preventing early development and progression of these spine related problems. For severe compression, surgery has a good role in bringing patients back to their normal daily routine, provided it is undertaken at an early stage and with specific indications said Dr Sodhi adding the misconception that spine surgery leads to poor outcome and bedridden status is entirely wrong.
