Hua Sands, the practitioner at Lavenham Physiotherapy and Acupuncture Clinic, recently attended the last in the series of Musculoskeletal Masterclasses put on by Nuffield Health Cambridge Hospital with talks by specialist consultants in spinal injuries and pain management.

A key point made by the consultant neurosurgeon was that the patients who get the best outcomes from spinal surgery are those who are active in doing the exercises to strengthen their back muscles – they are able to return to normal life sooner and are less likely to have the back problems recurring.
The pain management specialist clarified that pain relief injections given in the pain clinic cannot be expected to solve the pain problem – they provide temporary relief to enable patients to get moving again so as to undertake the exercises necessary to resolve the problem.

The overall message therefore is that patients need to realise that surgery and injections are not magical cures for pain – they enable the body to get moving again, and when it is moving right, the body can heal itself and reduce pain for the long term.