Degenerative Disc Disease

What Causes Degenerative Disc Disease

Aging is the primary cause of degenerative disc disease. As much as you can expect your hair to grow gray eventually, you can expect that your discs will inevitably lose hydration. Aging results in the drying out of the discs; therefore, the discs in your back may no longer absorb the daily shocks the body experiences. Keep in mind that while everyone will experience disc degeneration over time, not everyone will experience pain.

Degenerative Disc Disease Symptoms

Associated symptoms of degenerative disc disease may include:

• Backache, episodic or constant
• Nerve compression resulting in numbness, tingling, weakness
• Neurogenic claudication that results in pain/cramping with walking distances. This pain is relieved by sitting.
• Pain with prolonged sitting, relieved by getting up and moving around

If you feel you are experiencing degenerative disc disease symptoms, you should seek care with your primary care doctor or consider consulting with a fellowship-trained spine surgeon.

Degenerative Disc Disease Conditions

Associated conditions of degenerative disc disease can include:

• Back pain
• Degenerative spondylolisthesis
• Degenerative scoliosis
• Spinal stenosis or narrowing of the spine, is also related to degenerative disc disease.
• Sciatica

Degenerative disc disease (DDD) and a bulging disc can be diagnosed at the same time, leaving some patients to question the difference between these two diagnoses. Basically, degenerative disc disease is an age-related condition that often can be a contributing cause or underlying reason for a bulging disc.

Diagnosing Degenerative Disc Disease

Your doctor will review your medical history and perform a thorough physical examination to diagnose degenerative disc disease. Radiologic imaging may be ordered by your physician including:

• MRI: best images the soft structures of your spine such as the discs, ligaments, and muscles
• X-rays: best for evaluating hard/bony structures
• CT scan as appropriate for hard/bony surfaces

At Hoag Orthopedic Institute, our fellowship-trained orthopedic spine doctors leverage a wide breadth of experience to help patients with degenerative disc disease find effective and targeted treatment for their unique condition, including herniated discs. Through accurate diagnoses made with state-of-the-art diagnostic equipment, we can identify the severity of disc displacement and the most appropriate course of treatment.

Degenerative Disc Disease Treatment

Degenerative disc disease is a very common, rarely painful condition that most often does not require treatment. If symptoms are present, your doctor may recommend some of the following non-operative degenerative disc disease treatments including:

• Non-steroidal anti-inflammatory medications (if no risk factors)
• Acupuncture
• Exercise-based Physical Therapy, which specifically strengthens the extensor muscles of your back (the muscles that bend your back backwards). Hoag Orthopedic Institute Back to You Spine Rehabilitation program offers this back pain treatment.
• Spinal Injections: When appropriate your spine care provider may recommend spinal injections. This typically involves an injection of steroids in and around painful structures.

Rarely surgery may be indicated as a degenerative disc disease treatment. Most commonly, the goal of surgery is to relieve nerve compression or correct deformity. Our surgeons at a HOI are well versed in the latest minimally invasive surgical techniques. These procedures such as laminectomy, laminotomy, discectomy or fusion, are commonly performed in one of our ambulatory surgery centers. More substantial inpatient procedures are done at the Hoag Orthopedic Institute.