Put an End to Your Herniated Disc Pain with Our Discseel Procedure

With a herniated disc, even slight movements can lead to considerable discomfort. Traditionally, treatment often boiled down to rest, some ibuprofen, and sucking it up to get through a few weeks of misery.

Now, there’s a better way to treat a herniated disc, and the team here at Apex Pain Specialists is proud to be at the forefront of this revolutionary new approach. Called Discseel®, this simple outpatient procedure can relieve your pain and improve the long-term health of your disc.

In this blog, our board-certified pain management specialists, Dr. Naveen Reddy and Dr. Maziar Massrour, explain why herniated discs occur and how Discseel can treat this condition.

The making of a herniated disc

Your spine contains a number of vertebrae and spinal discs. The vertebrae are bones that give your spine its structure, and the spinal discs sit between your vertebrae. These discs act as shock absorbers and keep your vertebrae from rubbing against each other.

Each disc has a tough outer layer called the annulus, which houses a gel-like substance inside called the nucleus pulposus. If one of these discs develops a tear, the gel-like interior can leak out. This condition is called a herniated disc. As a result of this condition, the material that leaks out may press on or irritate nearby nerve tissues. 

Herniated discs occur most frequently in areas of your spine that enjoy the most movement, which means your cervical spine (neck) and lumbar spine (lower back). 

The symptoms of a herniated disc can be local — such as pain in the immediate area — but they can also be felt in other areas, too. This is because symptoms can develop anywhere along the compressed nerve.

For example, you may experience pain, numbness, and tingling down one side of your buttocks and into your leg if the herniation is in your lower back. This condition is called sciatica. Along the same lines, if you have a herniated disc in your neck, then pain, numbness, and tingling may travel down into your arm and hand.

Treating a herniated disc with Discseel

Rather than waiting for the tear of a herniated disc to heal on its own, our goal is to relieve your pain as quickly as possible and repair the damage for long-term protection against future tears. With Discseel, we can accomplish both of these objectives.

There are two key parts to Discseel, which we perform in one, quick outpatient visit. First, we conduct an annulogram, during which we inject a contrast and an antibiotic into the targeted disc. Then, we watch a live X-ray to track the flow of the contrast to identify the tears.

Once we identify the tears in your disc, we use X-ray guidance to inject fibrin into the tears. Fibrin is an FDA-approved biologic that seals the tears in your disc and creates a scaffold upon which your body creates more tissue to strengthen the outer layer of your disc.

As a result, we’re able to address the immediate herniation and provide reinforcements to your disc so that it will be less likely to tear down the road. And the best part? We do all of this using only a needle and a local anesthetic. This means you’re free to return home after your Discseel procedure to begin the important process of healing.

If you'd like to explore whether Discseel is right for your herniated disc, call 480-820-7246 or book an appointment online with Apex Pain Specialists today. We’re located in Chandler, Arizona.