Northwest, IN Spine Surgeon
Nick Nenadovich, MD
"When it comes to spine care, less is more"
To Make an Appointment Call:
219-921-1444
What Symptoms Require An Appointment With A Spine Surgeon?
Do you sufffer from severe pain in your neck, arms, legs, or back? If so you may want to consider making an appointment with us. We specialize in providing the latest and most appropriate treatments to stop severe pain related to spinal disorders. Whether its a herniated or bulging disc or a severe or chronic vetebral fracture, chances are we can fix or at least help you manage your condition so you can get back to living a more normal life.
Cervical Disk Herniation with radiculopathy
Cervical disk herniations can be very painful and are often the reason for upper extremity radiculopathy (arm pain). The term radiculopathy sounds quite serious, but it is just the latin term referring to radiating pain in the arms or legs. Cervical disc herniations often reveal themselves by causing pain into one or both arms or stabbing pain between the shoulder blades. Sometimes they make it very difficult to look up. If you have pain in your arms and notice that you are loosing strength in your hands like dropping things, or difficulty with writting or manipulating small objects like zippers or ear rings, you need to be seek out an orthopedic spine surgeon to be further evaluated.
Lumbar (low back) Disk Herniation with Radiculopahty
Lumbar disk herninations are often very painful and often the cause of pain radiating into one leg and occasionally both legs. When lumbar disk herniations are severe, they can lead to more than just pain in the legs or buttocks (sciatica), they can lead to permanent nerve damage. If you have pain radiating into your legs and notice that you also have weakness in that ankle or in the great toe, you have a serious problem need to be seen immediately by a back specialist like Dr. Nenadovich.
Degenerative Disk Disease (DDD)
Degenerative disk disease is a very common diagnosis and usually refers to the gradual wearing down of the spinal intervertebral disks which ack as the shock absorbers for your spine. As these structures wear down over time this creates less space for the nerve roots to operate in and can lead to neck/back pain, limited range of motion (ROM) or more severe problems like spinal stenosis and radiculopathy.
Spinal Stenosis
Spinal stenosis refers to narrowing of the spinal canal or spinal foramen (openings in the spinal canal where the nerve roots exit the central canal. It can be caused by several problems including but not limited to DDD (Degenerative Disk Disease), osteoarthritis, disk herniation, disk protrusion, disk bulging, or disk extrusion.
Spondylolisthesis (slipped vetebra or slipped disc)
Spondylolisthesis refers to one vetebral body "slipping" forward or backward on top of another. This problem can be completely benign or severely painful and debilitating. It is usually a product of a childhood fall that was never properly diagnosed (idiopathic spondylolisthesis) or from severe facet arthritis (degenerative spondyloisthesis).