Because "lumbar muscle strain" is common, some people are easy to be satisfied with the diagnosis of "lumbar muscle strain" and neglect to find other possible reasons. Especially when the pain is not very severe, it is "used to it" and it is not taken seriously. Just like the patient in this case, the long-term low back pain has not been carefully examined and treated, and the low back pain caused by the potentially dangerous "abdominal aortic aneurysm" is regarded as a general "lumbar muscle strain", which has caused irreparable consequences.
In fact, the causes of chronic low back pain can be described as "various", which can be either the local soft tissue of the waist or the spinal column itself, such as congenital malformation, inflammation, trauma, degeneration and tumor. Or diseases other than the soft tissues of the waist and spine, such as diseases of the urinary system, blood vessels and nervous system.
Most patients with chronic low back pain can get better curative effect if they can seriously carry out necessary examinations and make a clear diagnosis.
Lumbar intervertebral disc
A place prone to problems
Many readers have written about the problem of low back and leg pain caused by "lumbar disc herniation". "Lumbar disc herniation" is indeed more common. Like "lumbar muscle strain", it is the most common cause of low back pain. According to statistics, more than half of patients with low back pain have problems with the lumbar intervertebral disc. In fact, many middle-aged and elderly people have different degrees of disc herniation, but not all people have symptoms of low back and leg pain. Only those with symptoms constitute "lumbar disc herniation".
There are many reasons for disc herniation: intervertebral disc is the tissue between vertebrae in the spine, and its center is a colorless and transparent colloidal substance-nucleus pulposus. The intervertebral disc degenerates almost from adulthood, the water content decreases gradually, and the elasticity of annulus fibrosus ligament decreases gradually. In addition, the intervertebral disc tissue itself lacks blood supply and its repair ability is poor. In the case of heavy load, excessive activity and trauma, it is easy to cause "accumulated strain" which leads to the rupture of fibrous ring and the extrusion of nucleus pulposus, which oppresses and stimulates peripheral nerves and blood vessels, thus causing numbness, pain and other symptoms. In addition, long-term lumbar muscle strain, atrophy of muscles and ligaments, increased local tension and increased internal pressure of intervertebral disc are also important reasons for the rupture of fibrous ring and nucleus pulposus protrusion.
When lumbar disc herniation oppresses and stimulates peripheral nerves or blood vessels, obvious lumbar pain may appear, which is aggravated when moving, coughing or sneezing, and radiates to the legs, and radiation pain and numbness may appear in the lower limbs. Bending your knees in bed can often relieve pain.
Most patients with disc herniation can get better results after non-surgical treatment; Only when some non-surgical treatments fail to improve or recur will surgical treatment be considered.
Bone calcium loss
Osteoporosis also has symptoms of low back pain.
Osteoporosis is also common in people in their fifties. Some readers write to talk about the pain of "back pain" and "hand and foot pain" caused by osteoporosis. In fact, osteoporosis does not start from old age. Young people in their early twenties have begun to lose bone calcium, that is, the amount of calcium excreted by bones gradually exceeds the amount of calcium absorbed. This loss of bone calcium generally increases with age, but only in the elderly, especially postmenopausal women, osteoporosis is more serious.
Osteoporosis can occur in all bones, especially in spine, hip and limbs. Vertebra belongs to "cancellous bone" or "cancellous bone". Due to the continuous loss of bone calcium, it gradually becomes very loose, and the vertebral body deforms under the action of gravity. In severe cases, it develops into vertebral body fractures (many of which belong to compression fractures) and disc herniation.
Because osteoporosis can be "painful" or "painless", even some elderly people with vertebral compression fractures have no obvious conscious symptoms. This gradual accumulation without obvious pain makes osteoporosis, which should have been prevented from middle-aged and young people, not get the attention it deserves.
The prevention and treatment of vertebral osteoporosis mainly depends on adequate nutrition, including protein, minerals, calcium and vitamin D supplements. If you pay attention to eating more calcium-rich foods (such as milk) from middle age and increase outdoor activities in the sun appropriately, you can naturally prevent or delay the occurrence of osteoporosis. Postmenopausal women should also often do some less strenuous sports and housework, which is good for preventing osteoporosis in the elderly. Taking a small amount of estrogen under the supervision of doctors also has a good effect on the prevention and treatment of osteoporosis.
It is difficult to understand the relationship between low back pain and bleeding and death.
As mentioned above, the pathogenic factors of low back pain in the elderly are many and complicated, and there may be several diseases or pathological changes at the same time. Therefore, in addition to patients' own attention and timely and active treatment, some necessary auxiliary examinations must be carried out to master the source of low back pain diseases.
Judging from the materials in this case, even if Xiao Yang's father may have "lumbar muscle strain", it is impossible to die of sudden blood loss. So, there must be other reasons.
Aneurysm is not a solid tumor, but a "weak link" formed by some pathological factors in the arterial wall. Being impacted by blood flow and gradually bulging outwards to form a ball, it is called an aneurysm. Aneurysms located on the abdominal aorta are called abdominal aortic aneurysms. The abdominal aortic aneurysm gradually increases, which will compress the lumbar nerve roots and cause low back pain. If the aneurysm grows too big, the arterial wall can't bear the pressure of blood flow impact, it will rupture and cause fatal hemorrhage.
Looking back on Xiao Yang's father's low back pain, whether it is caused by abdominal aortic aneurysm pressing the lumbar nerve root or lumbar muscle strain at the same time, as long as his treatment methods such as "massage, hot compress physiotherapy and sticking analgesic ointment" are ineffective, he should go to the hospital as soon as possible to find the cause. In fact, this potentially fatal aneurysm is completely curable. The traditional treatment is surgery, which replaces the diseased abdominal aorta with artificial blood vessels. In recent years, minimally invasive treatment methods have delivered "covered stent" to the diseased site of abdominal aortic aneurysm through catheter, thus achieving therapeutic effect.
"Learn from a painful experience", although the symptoms of low back pain are very common, we should be alert to both "fur" lumbar muscle strain and "fatal" diseases. Finally, I suggest you go to the hospital for a careful examination, find out the reasons and treat the symptoms.
I wish you a speedy recovery.