If not controlled and treated early, spinal degeneration can easily lead to dangerous complications, affecting the discs and nerve roots. Patients are at risk of motor dysfunction, and even hemiplegia.
1. Herniated Disc
The intervertebral disc is about 85% water and functions as a shock absorber. It sits between the vertebrae, reducing friction and helping the body move more flexibly. Over time, the disc loses water due to the body's aging process. One or more discs between the vertebrae of the back and neck can become damaged, slipping out of their original position and compressing the spinal cord and nerves within the spinal canal.
This condition causes pain and sensory disturbances at the affected site. If treatment is delayed, patients may lose motor control, and even develop muscle atrophy or paralysis.
2. Spinal Stenosis
Changes caused by spinal degeneration can lead to the formation of bone spurs from the vertebral body. These bone spurs grow into the spinal canal, narrowing it and compressing the spinal cord. Patients often feel numbness and muscle weakness in the arms and legs. The condition can lead to paralysis if not detected and stopped early.
3. Lumbar Spine Degeneration
Spinal deformity: When the weather changes, patients with spinal degeneration experience severe pain, making it impossible to work or move. Maintaining a poor posture for too long causes the lumbar spine to curve or become hunched. This complication not only affects appearance but also greatly impacts the patient's normal daily life and work.
Nerve compression: Lumbar spine degeneration compresses the nerves, leading to pain radiating to the buttocks and limbs. When this condition persists, patients experience pain, muscle spasms, difficulty moving, and numbness. Over time, it can lead to paralysis.
Chest pain: Patients experience chest pain, persistent pain on one side of the chest muscle. This is caused by pressure from bone spurs on the cervical spinal nerve roots C6-C7.
Vision problems: Patients are at risk of reduced vision, watery eyes, light sensitivity, eye swelling and pain, narrowed field of vision, and even blindness.
Damage to the disc and spine: Spinal degeneration can cause herniated discs and bone spurs.
Compression of the lumbosacral spinal cord: When the disease progresses to a chronic stage, it can cause dangerous complications such as disability and leg paralysis.
4. Cervical Spine Degeneration
Insomnia: Patients feel significant pain even at rest, leading to insomnia, prolonged fatigue, and even increased blood pressure and stroke risk.
Blood pressure fluctuation syndrome: Cervical spine degeneration can cause blood pressure to drop or rise.
Vestibular disorders: Patients with spinal degeneration often experience reduced blood and oxygen flow to the brain, which can easily lead to vestibular disorders.
Cerebral ischemia: The degeneration of the cervical spine can compress the arteries, hindering blood flow to nerve cells, causing cerebral ischemia. This condition can cause symptoms such as slurred speech, weakness or paralysis of the limbs, numbness on one side of the body, dizziness, blurred vision, memory decline, facial drooping, and in some cases, fainting, stroke, or cerebral hemorrhage.
Cervical bone spurs: Cervical spine degeneration causes the cartilage surface of the spine to thin gradually, and the bone beneath the cartilage becomes deformed, making it easy for bone spurs to form and grow. During movement, these bone spurs rub against muscles, tendons, and ligaments, or compress the nerves, causing pain.
Cervico-cardiac syndrome: When the cervical vertebrae degenerate and shift out of their original position, this changes the structure of the spine, compressing the nerves that control the heart, causing chest pain and arrhythmia.
Hemiplegia: When the nervous system is compressed for a long period, pressure from the spine causes stagnation of blood circulation, and the nerves gradually lose motor function, spreading from the limbs to one side of the body, leading to paralysis.
Treatment of spinal degeneration must follow the correct principles for each stage. When pain persists or recurs repeatedly, patients should see a doctor as soon as possible. At the General Surgery Department of HIU Hospital, doctors will conduct clinical evaluations and in-depth examinations, analyze diagnostic imaging, and develop a treatment plan suited to each patient. Patients should not be complacent and let the disease progress to a severe stage with many dangerous complications.