An alarming rise in spinal injuries manifested as back pain in India is being caused by unhealthy lifestyle practises combined with bad postures and sedentary jobs, stress at work, and environmental degradation, experts say.

“The emerging spine-related problems in India may be due to an overall reduced physical activity of the society, but the inappropriate living conditions of a large segment of the population also contribute to it,” says Dr Manish Vaish, Director of Neurosurgery at Max Super Specialty Hospital, New Delhi.

Pointing out that research suggests that 60% per cent of the Indian population will have a significant episode of spine-related problems at some point in their lives, Dr Vaish stresses that there are some spine-related problems where other treatment options do not work, and surgery is left as the only treatment option.

In such cases, minimally invasive surgeries such as spine endoscopic surgery can play a significant role in providing relief to patients' he adds.

“Spine-related diseases like Cervical Spondylosis, arteries in brain tumours, backache pain, Spine TB and aneurysm (ballooning of blood vessels due to weakening) commonly occur,” says Dr Yashpal Singh Bundela, Senior Consultant, Brain and Spine Ppl, New Delhi.

“However, most of them, like brain tumours, spine TB and brain aneurysms in their advanced stage, need surgical treatments, where minimally invasive surgery has been very successful as it helps fast recovery post-surgery,” he added.

Adding further on how minimally invasive surgery has been turning feasible and successful, Dr Bundela says, “Like many spine-related problems, the prevalence of osteoporosis is also very high (in India).”

“It is among the highest in the world and no exact cause has been found for this so far. And the Asian population as such is predisposed to this, he further adds.

Dr Bundela explained that minimally invasive surgical procedures like vertebroplasty and kyphoplasty are the most common surgical techniques used to treat osteoporosis.