14 September 2010
By Bushra Baseerat
Hyderabad, India
After skeletons and charred lungs, cigarette packs may soon have to put pictures of spinal disorders. For, orthopaedics in the city are observing a pattern among their patients who come with the complaint of a nagging back pain–as many as one–third of them are smokers. And this figure has gone up by 30–40 per cent in the last few years, say doctors, who note that the occurrence of pain in the lower back is being seen more among young smokers.
"Besides, nicotine increases pain sensitivity and is a risk factor for triggering chronic and persistent pain," says Dr P Vijayanand, director, Axon Pain Management Centre, who says one–third of his patients suffering from back pain are smokers.
"Out of every 100 young patients, we are eliciting history of smoking in at least 60 of them," says Dr G P V Subbaiah, orthopaedic and spinal surgeon, Global hospital.
Apart from the narrowed down arteries, doctors point out that patients who are smokers take a great deal of time to recover from bone injuries as against non–smoking patients. Doctors explain that injury to the bone, ligaments, or surrounding muscular tissue takes longer to heal since oxygen and healing nutrients are restricted due to smoking. "Smoking can delay or completely stop the healing process if somebody hurts his back. It adds to the suffering and patients also do not benefit as much from the treatment as non–smokers do," says Dr N Somasekhar Reddy, orthopaedic surgeon, Apollo hospital.
The impact of pain–killers too is less on these patients, say doctors. And its a debilitating condition. Dr C Nagesh, assistant professor, orthopaedic department, Nizam’s Institute of Medical Sciences, says that patients addicted to cigarettes come with severe pain in the back and calf, and though they are able to walk for a kilometre initially but as days pass, the mobility reduces drastically with time. "But they do not give up smoking despite warnings," Dr Nagesh says.
What is worse is back pain makes it difficult to walk, sleep, and perform the most basic tasks from standing to sitting, if ignored. Doctors note that apart from smoking, the incidents of back pain are increasing because of lifestyle changes, stress, obesity, increasing lifespan and a sedentary lifestyle.
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