Back pain after medical manipulations and surgery

Neither the intensity of pain nor its localization is a sufficient diagnostic sign. To find pathological causes that caused the pain syndrome, or to exclude them, it is necessary to contact a medical institution and undergo an examination. It is not worth ignoring pain, especially if it does not go away for several days, and timely treatment will help to avoid dangerous complications.

Pain after back massage

Often people who have visited a massage therapist complain of pain after sessions, especially the first ones. They react to this in different ways, some stop the massage immediately, others consider pain to be normal, and on the contrary, the absence of pain is a sign of the massage therapist's unprofessionalism. So who is right? Why do painful sensations appear?

Experts distinguish three main types of massage based on the effect they have on the back muscles:

1. Relaxing. After this effect, there should be no pain in the muscles. It is superficial and does not affect the deep layers of muscle tissue. It is done to relax the muscles after significant physical exertion, with muscle stiffness of psychogenic origin or with various diseases of the spine. As a result, the patient should experience only pleasant relaxation in the body, he should be in a peaceful state and in a good mood. Pain and stiffness in the body as a consequence of a relaxing massage indicates that the procedure was performed incorrectly.
2. Toning. This type is used to bring the muscles into working condition. Muscle tissue is stimulated, it is similar to training. After such a massage, lactic acid is produced in the muscle tissue, the so-called delayed onset muscle soreness (MSS). The patient usually feels it in the morning after a session, after a night's rest, when metabolic processes in the body's tissues are activated. Back pain usually goes away after two or three sessions. If the pain does not go away, but intensifies, you need to stop the procedures, since this is an alarming sign of insufficient qualifications of the massage therapist or incorrect massage prescription. Signs of trouble are also pain immediately after the massage or an hour or two after.
3. Acupressure is performed on acupuncture points. In this case, the procedure itself is painful, but if it is performed correctly, relief comes quickly enough. Back pain after a massage indicates that the acupuncture points were identified incorrectly and muscle spasm increased, or the massage therapist made a mistake and massaged the wrong points.

In addition, violation of the rules for performing massage can cause pain in the back. Massage for chronic diseases is performed only in the latent period. During a relapse or acute disease (including injuries), the procedure cannot be performed, the muscles will become even more stiff, edema will appear, which will squeeze the nerve endings (radicular syndrome). Massage is contraindicated in case of large spinal hernias. The procedure is not performed on the spine and in areas located directly above the vital organs of the peritoneum, heart, kidneys. Contraindications to the procedure are also violations of the integrity of the skin, dermatological diseases, hemophilia, the presence of neoplasms, osteomyelitis, tuberculosis of bone tissue, venereal and mental diseases, the second half of pregnancy.

Back pain after epidural anesthesia

When an operation is planned on organs located in the lower part of the human body, anesthesia is administered by injection into the spine. This is a much more gentle type of anesthesia than general anesthesia. This is how most gynecological and urological interventions, leg trauma operations, and rectal surgery are anesthetized.

Back pain after epidural and spinal anesthesia, which differ only in the depth of anesthetic administration, is mainly caused by tissue irritation from the injection. The nature of such pain is moderate, it is felt, as a rule, no more than 48 hours after the operation.

The presence of a spinal hernia in a patient is not a contraindication for spinal anesthesia, however, it is a factor that increases the likelihood of pain syndrome.

When injecting into the spine, you can hit a small vessel, which results in a hematoma, and the ligaments of the spinal column are also injured and stretched, reflex muscle spasms occur, and nerve endings are irritated by the solution of the injected anesthetic. All this does not pose a danger, but it stimulates the development of pain sensations, which will go away on their own after some time.

The patient's suspiciousness, fear and expectation of pain also play a significant role in the perception of pain.

The real danger is the staff's lack of conscientious attitude to aseptic and antiseptic rules. This does not happen often, but the human factor cannot be discounted. In this case, an infection may develop, which is facilitated by the installation of a catheter for a fairly long time. Infection of the injection site leads not only to pain, but also to general symptoms of inflammation - fever, malaise, headache. Taking timely measures in this case is of great importance for preventing purulent inflammation of the spinal cord membrane.

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Back pain after anesthesia

One in ten patients operated on under general anesthesia feels back pain when they regain consciousness. This is a fairly common complication, especially after long operations, due to the fact that, under anesthesia, the patient lies motionless on the smooth surface of the operating table and develops "fatigue" of the back muscles. Painful sensations are localized in the lumbar region.

Symmetrical muscle pain in the neck and shoulders, which disappears on the third or fourth day after surgery, is a reaction to the use of the muscle relaxant Ditiline in emergency surgery.

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Back pain after surgery

After any surgical intervention, regardless of the volume and method (minimally invasive or open), pain may occur. Naturally, the more tissue is damaged during the operation, the more severe the pain may occur after the operation.

Postoperative back pain occurs primarily after operations on the spine, organs whose anatomical localization is conducive to it - the pancreas, gall bladder, lungs. Pain radiates to the back after operations on the abdominal and pelvic organs, operative delivery. Often the cause of the development of pain syndrome is the use of spinal anesthesia. Pain is mainly felt during the healing of injured tissues, however, it can appear much later. Sometimes the patient is bothered by chronic postoperative pain. The reasons can be very different - the growth of adhesions, nerve entrapment, the development of pain memory, etc.

Back pain after removal of a herniated disc, neoplasms, replacement of an intervertebral disc, elimination of compression and loosening of the spinal column is not at all uncommon. Operations designed to eliminate pain in one or more parts of the spine may end with increased pain. These pains even have a special name - syndrome of the operated spine. The problem of postoperative pain is still being studied by specialists all over the world, in about a fifth of cases their causes remain unknown. Immediately after operations, its stabilization is disrupted at the site of its implementation, due to which radicular syndrome, inflammation, neoplasms, growths of scar tissue appear, which causes constant or periodic back pain. In the rehabilitation period after surgery, patients are prescribed physiotherapy procedures, exercise therapy, breathing exercises, drug treatment, wearing special corsets, and are given recommendations on how to reduce postoperative pain.

Back pain after gallbladder removal has a special name - postcholecystectomy syndrome, the cause of which is, in principle, the same reason that brought the patient to the operating table. Metabolic and chemical composition disorders of bile remain, the organ has been removed, its functions are not performed, which affects the work of neighboring organs involved in the digestion process. The main manifestation of postcholecystectomy syndrome is considered to be dysfunction of the sphincter of Oddi, which controls the flow of bile and pancreatic juice into the duodenum. Pancreatic type of dysfunction is manifested by pain radiating to the back. Often the only way to eliminate pain is another surgical intervention.

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