Whether in your back or neck, dealing with a herniated disc is hard. The pain is limiting and frustrating. You likely also have a pinched nerve. That brings pain, weakness, or numbness in one of your arms or legs. You have to sit out the activities you usually enjoy. Or you may even have trouble with everyday tasks like walking or grasping objects.
At UVA Health, our spine care experts can help you get your life back. We know quality of life means something different to each person. We’ll build a treatment plan based on your personal needs.
Herniated Disc Treatment at UVA Health
Most of the time, people don’t need surgery for a herniated disc. We offer many nonsurgical treatments to reduce your pain. These include physical therapy, injections, and other procedures. Read more about spine care without surgery.
Herniated Disc Surgery
In some cases, nonsurgical treatments aren’t enough. We may recommend surgery if:
- Pain still interrupts your daily routine or favorite activities
- It’s hard to walk or use your hand
We offer these surgeries for herniated discs. We sometimes perform more than 1 of these at the same time.
- Discectomy is a surgery to remove a damaged disc. We may replace it with an artificial disc.
- Spinal fusion means we join (fuse) 2 or more spine bones (vertebrae) together. We use a bone graft from a donor or your own body. The graft works the way a broken bone heals back together.
- Foraminotomy relieves pressure on pinched nerves. We widen the area nerves pass through.
Our expert surgeons have extra training in minimally invasive surgery. These help you recover faster with less pain. We do muscle-sparing surgeries to avoid cutting through muscle. We also use smaller cuts (incisions).
We use implants during some spinal fusions for more stability. We offer custom implants made to fit your body, like the aprevo device. These ease recovery and make complications less likely.