SAN FRANCISCO, Calif. -- (Ivanhoe Newswire) -- It’s a pain most of us will experience in our lifetime. Hopefully, you’ll be one of the lucky ones, where bed rest and an aspirin does the trick, but for 46,000 people each year, their back pain will become debilitating.

Now, doctors are relieving the pain without going to the extreme of spinal fusion.

Eighty percent of all Americans will feel the pain. It contributes to $128 billion of medical costs a year and it’s responsible for 100 million lost days of work.

Margaret Wee was one of those hit hard by years of abusing her young body and back.

“I have had pain and numbness in my left leg for the past four years to the point where I could not feel my left foot,” Wee said.

A car accident in high school followed by the rigors of collegiate soccer, a couple of bad snowboarding accidents, and degenerating disc disease has left this 28-year-old with two herniated discs in her lumbar spine.

“It definitely sidelined me," Wee said. "Psychologically, I was like, 'Oh my god, what’s going to become of me?' I couldn't even walk down to the end of the block.”

One option is spinal fusion, but that comes with severe implications.

“The results are never great. It takes something that’s terrible and makes it bearable,” said Dr. Kenneth Light, a spine surgeon.

Instead of a spinal fusion that would make part of Wee's spine immobile and could contribute to arthritis later on, spine surgeon Light instead opted for a new pro-disc implant.

"It doesn't make the spine abnormally stiff, so the patient has much more movement, much more mobility," Light explained.

Doctors use a microscope to remove the fragments of disc that are pinching the spinal nerve and spinal cord.

"He pulls the spine apart, cuts a little joint and slips this little joint into the spine," Light said. "The spine springs together and captures the joint.”

Compare the numbers: for spinal fusion surgery, patients will stay in the hospital for five days.

For a lumbar disc replacement, the stay is only two days. If you use the implant for a cervical disc replacement, it's one day.

Recovery with the implants is cut from 12 weeks to 10 days.

“It’s the first time we’ve been able to do an operation with such great results in such a short period of time,” Light said.

Six months after surgery, Margaret has some numbness in her foot, a little pain, but nothing like before. Nothing's holding her back. She's ready to ride even after the sun goes down.

"In the end, I'm glad this happened when it did, because I'm recovered,” Wee said.

It’s too early to know how long the new implant will last, but they are lab tested to last 100 years.

BACKGROUND: Disc replacement surgery is becoming increasingly popular in treating patients with degenerative discs in their lower back. This surgery is necessary for people who do not benefit from taking anti-inflammatory medications, doing physical therapy, and receiving injections. One of the main reasons why disc replacement surgery is needed is because the discs become damaged. When damaged, the jelly-like cushions between the vertebrae and the spine begin to bulge, pressing against the main nerve, and cause sharp shooting pains. A disc replacement is implanted into the spine to imitate the functions of a normal disc. (SOURCE: www.mayoclinic.com)

TREATMENT: Artificial discs are usually made of metal or plastic-like (biopolymer) materials, or a combination of the two, and have been used in the body for many years. There is also a newer type of surgery for replacement discs consisting of a scaffold seeded with living cells. These implants are grown from living cells, and could provide more comfort and flexibility. This new surgery could also relieve back pain without many of the side effects caused by the current artificial disc replacement surgery. When Compared to the metal and plastic implants used today, an artificial scaffold swathed in living tissue could repair itself, and the constant access to blood supply would reduce the risk of infection after surgery. (SOURCE: http://www.technologyreview.com)

OPTIONS: Artificial discs are usually made of metal or plastic-like (biopolymer) materials, or a combination of the two, and have been used in the body for years. However, there is a newer type of surgery for disc replacement that uses living cells inserted into a scaffold. This artificial disc was engineered to closely imitate the natural form, so it would perform the same functions as an actual disc. Engineers at the Medical University of South Carolina modeled the complex structure of a disc on a computer, and then began constructing a scaffold made from dissolved polyurethane. Bovine cells were seeded onto the scaffold to test if the structure would support cell growth. After 19 days, the cells grew, and arranged themselves as they would in a natural disc. (SOURCE: http://www.technologyreview.com)

BENEFITS: Since the new discs are grown from living cells, they would provide more comfort and flexibility. The new disc replacement surgery could also relieve back pain without many of the side effects caused by the current artificial discs. When compared to the metal and plastic implants used today, an artificial scaffold containing the living cells and tissue could repair itself, and with constant access to the blood supply, chances of infection after surgery would be reduced. Like a natural disc, the artificial disc would act as a shock absorber, creating a cushion for spinal impacts. This new disc is still in development, but they will be nearing clinical trials over the next few months. Researchers will begin testing the disc in rats to further understand how complicated the discs need to be to restore function. (SOURCE: http://www.technologyreview.com) MORE

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