You Don't Have to Live With Chronic Back Pain. We Can Help.

The shadow that chronic lower back pain can cast over your life can be a very long one. Each day, you wake up wondering just how much you’re going to have to work around the discomfort and what activities you may have to skip out on.

Around 13% of the adult population in the United States is in the same boat, and it’s the leading cause of disability. In fact, each year, chronic lower back pain accounts for 4.3 million years lived with disability.

If you’re looking for meaningful and sustainable solutions for your chronic lower back pain, you’ve come to the right place. At our practice, board-certified neurosurgeon Dr. Ali H. Mesiwala and our team are leading experts in the field of spine surgery, and we offer the latest techniques for remedying ongoing back pain.

Here’s a look at the most common causes of lower back pain and how we go about bringing relief to our patients.

Common causes of chronic lower back pain

The five large vertebrae that form the foundation of your lower back — your lumbar spine — are arguably the most hard working of the 33 spinal vertebrae.

Your lumbar spine not only supports much of your upper body, it also plays no small role in your range of motion, mobility, and ability to lift and carry.

As a result of this heavy workload, the structures in your lower back can succumb to wear and tear and degenerative changes, which can lead to these common culprits behind chronic lower back pain:

• Degenerative disc disease
• Lumbar spinal stenosis
• Arthritis (facet joint syndrome)
• Sacroiliac joint dysfunction
• Spondylolisthesis

No matter how you developed your lower back pain, what was once an acute problem has now turned chronic, and you want solutions.

Restoring pain-free movement in your lower back

If you’re struggling with lower back pain, our first goal is to identify the cause of the discomfort, which will dictate your treatment options moving forward.

After an extensive evaluation using advanced imaging, we not only determine what the underlying cause of your back pain is, but the extent of the problem and whether it will degenerate further.

Once we have a clear idea about what you’re up against, we recommend the best course of action, which might include one of the following:

• Microdiscectomy — we repair a tear in your intervertebral disc
• Artificial disc replacement — we replace your damaged disc with an artificial one
• Laminectomy — we resolve nerve impingement by creating more space
• Spinal fusion — we fuse two of your vertebrae together
• Neuromodulation — we implant a device that emits electrical signals that garble pain messaging
• SI joint surgery — we stabilize your SI joint using pins

Of course, these are overly simplistic explanations of very advanced procedures, and we make sure you understand, in full detail, whichever one we recommend to you.

We also want to point out that pain relief and mobility are top priorities. For example, we often prefer disc replacement surgery over spinal fusion as this approach allows you to maintain more motion in your lumbar spine.

Dr. Ali Mesiwala is on the forefront of many spinal treatment modalities and treats every patient with the mindset of restoring them to a normal, pain-free life. Spinal disorders can be overwhelming and can interfere with daily activities but that with his experience and expertise, Dr. Mesiwala can ensure a safe and effective outcome for all his patients. He routinely performs spinal decompression procedures, disc replacements (in the neck and back), and pain management procedures. More importantly he is the faculty for many of these procedures, training other surgeons from around the world, and also participates in research to advance the surgical techniques and outcomes for patients. 

To figure out which option is best for remedying your chronic lower back pain, please contact one of our offices in Newport Beach, Marina del Rey, Rancho Cucamonga, California, to schedule a consultation.