Learning about Conservative Care - Health Channel

Blog

Learning about Conservative Care |

Dr. Theresa Pazionis, Orthopedic and Spine Surgeon at Miami Orthopedics and Sports Medicine Institute, explains conservative care consists on physical therapy, oftentimes injection therapy, lifestyle modifications and other ergonomic changes that patients are going to make in their lives in order to ease the pain or any other health problem.

Dr. Jose Mena, Interventional Spine Specialist at Miami Orthopedics and Sports Medicine Institute, says most of the patients will get conservative care, unless they present red flags, like weakness, bladder problems and sexual dysfunction.

Transcript

What is conservative care, what is that concept. So conservative care a lot of patients who come to my clinic have been referred because either someone felt that they need surgery or they’ve been referred to sort of figure out their spine difficulties. Conservative care consists of physical therapy oftentimes injection therapy wall for patients so doctor Amina and Hill look at look at these patients or sometimes just Tylenol lifestyle modifications and other ergonomic changes that they’re going to make in their lives, and oftentimes that does work in people’s pain does resolve. And that’s actually the best case scenario right— That’s correct. Most of the patients the first line of treatment will be as she said conservative care unless the patient they present what we call red flags. They have weakness on sudden onset of bowel bladder problems, sexual dysfunction. Those are things that are prominent to getting a surgical consultation right away, sooner rather than later, but for the most part 90 plus percent of patients of the time they will start with that concept of care and most the time they will get better. When treatments like physical therapy and pain medication is not enough, like we’ve tried everything at this point. When do you start considering injections Dr. Mena ? Normally, I will start considering injections whenever… There’s two things the most common one will be when patients they come and we try conservative care, non-steroidal anti-inflammatory medication, sophisticatedly alives or advils. We sent them back to physical therapy. When they come back they didn’t progress at all they have some mild improvement and they got stuck, they plateau, those are… That’s when we start considering the possibility of injection. Keeping in mind, I tell the patient an injection is not a cure, what the injection does is just to relieve some of your symptoms so you can proactively continue to an exercise program. The second role of the injection will be for people that we know that they’re in significant amount of pain, that they are unable to start a physical therapy program which is not the variety of patients just a very small subset of patients. Sometimes we need to throw an injection prior to get them some relief in order to start them on a physical therapy program. So for the most part… is the first one… The one i talked first, address first normally that’s the one, the most common scenario that we encounter on a daily basis in practice.

DISCLAIMER: The information and opinions expressed in the programs on this channel and website are intended to address specific questions asked or situations described in each particular program, are for educational purposes only, and are not designed to constitute advice or recommendations as to any disease, ailment, or physical condition. You should not act or rely upon any information contained in these programs without seeking the advice of your personal physician or a qualified medical provider. If you have any questions about the information or opinions expressed, please contact your doctor or other medical professional.