Football fans are buzzing how a back injuryhas affected Dallas Cowboy’s quarterback Tony Romo after the game against the Washington Redskins on Dec. 22.  Within four days, Romo’s season was over as he underwent spine surgery for a herniated disk. His spine injury prompted many questions, as well as discussion of similar disk problems experienced by Dallas Mavericks owner Mark Cuban, and fellow NFL players Dez Bryant, DeMarcus Ware, Peyton Manning, Arian Foster and others.

Tony Romo Injury Questions

For example, many people asked why Romo left the game limping, yet an MRI indicated that he had aherniated disk. After successfully treating many patients with back pain, Dr. Samir Parikh, M.D., spine specialist and neurosurgeon at The Neuro & Spine Wellness Center in Frisco, TX, provides some helpful insight.

First, patients must understand that the spinal column is made up of many intricate parts that can affect your entire body when injury or disease occurs. The open center of each vertebrae creates a channel that provides pathway for sensitive nerves, blood vessels, muscles and ligaments. Those connective elements impact the sensations and mobility of your entire body. That is why pain in other parts of the body may stem from a back injury and not a problem in the exact area where the pain occurs.

Herniated Disk Can Cause Pain, Numbness and Weakness

Many athletes take pride in mental toughness and their ability to play through the pain, especially when facing an important game. Romo has famously played for weeks with cracked ribs and a punctured lung. But a spine injury should not be taken lightly, and Romo’s doctors and trainers likely made that clear.

The quarterback was listed as tentative for practice during the week after his injury. Cowboy’s owner Jerry Jones was quoted as saying Romo was dealing with back pain and back spasms but “nothing structurally that will rule him out.”

A herniated disk  means that the tough outer ring of the disk is being squeezed, or even torn, and the disk fiber may bulge out toward the spinal canal. Pressure on the nerves results in severe lower back pain, possibly even causing tingling, numbness or weakness in the legs. Simple irritation in the nerves may be easier to fix than extensive damage that could cause permanent loss of mobility.

ESPN and other media outlets said doctors administered epidural injections to try and relieve Romo’s pain and reduce inflammation. Depending on the severity of the disk injury, this treatment may ease symptoms. The spongy disk material that cushions between each vertebra along the spine may be damaged in a number of ways that only spine surgery can effectively treat.

If injections don’t help, spine specialists may attempt to ease pressure on nerves along the lumbar spine (lower back) using physical therapy. If the treatments do not help or the patient continues to irritate the injury with activity, the disk may sustain further damage. Nerves may be in danger of permanent injury without prompt spine surgery, as seems to have been recommended by the spine consultant for the Dallas Cowboys.

Coach Jason Garrett told ESPN.com the quick decision to do back surgery on Romo should contribute to his player’s ability to heal and rehab in time for spring practice sessions. But avoiding further irritation or lasting nerve damage is also a consideration.

“We felt like the surgery went well, and Tony should be able to come home hopefully later today and start to begin his rehabilitation for the 2014 season,” Garrett said, although no specifics of Romo’s condition or type of surgery were made public on www.dallascowboys.com.

Types of Spine Surgery

There are many different options open to neurosurgeons skilled in advanced spine surgery techniques to remove some or all of the damaged disk, or sometimes fuse vertebrae around it. In his Frisco, TX, spine surgery practice, Dr. Parikh does minimally-invasive spine surgery. This technique uses small incisions, causing minimal damage to muscle and tissue, less pain after surgery and a faster recovery. Neurosurgery and microsurgery have the advantage of neuronavigation for outstanding accuracy. Spine surgery options may include:

• Spinal fusion
• Bone grafts
• Disc replacement
• Anterior and posterior spine surgery
• Microdiscectomy

Several sources in the media suggest that Tony Romo may have undergone this last type of surgery, the microdiscectomy. That is an endoscopic procedure to repair the disk herniation in the lower back. Typically, there is a short recovery period, ranging from two weeks to 10 weeks or more (especially for a patient who is a professional athlete). Plenty of time for Romo to rest and rehab in time for Cowboys mini-camps in April, and fully recover his strength before next season, according to The Bleacher Report.

For more details on minimally invasive spine surgery and other expert back pain treatment offered by Frisco spine surgeon, call for an appointment at Neuro & Spine Wellness Center, 214-494-0455, or use our online contact form.