Tendons are connective tissues that consist of collagen and connect muscles and bones. They are strong and fibrous, but although they can tolerate stress, they are not unbeatable. In your spinal column, tendons play an important role as they assist in facilitating motion, support shoulder weight, and keep your spine stable.

Tendons suffer injuries because of some acute force and spinal tendonitis is caused by overexertion and stress. When spinal tendons suffer injuries, it impacts your ability to move normally and exposes your spine to more injuries.

In spinal tendonitis, the tendons suffer inflammation. Not only is it painful, but it also prohibits proper blood flow to the area, which slows down the healing of the injury. It also causes compression of the adjacent nerves, which furthers the pain and radiates numbness and feebleness to different parts of the body. The affected tendon also causes shrinkage of the spinal foramina, the space through which the spinal nerves pass. This condition is called foraminal stenosis.

Diagnosis and treatment of spinal tendonitis

The best way to treat spinal tendonitis is to get the right diagnosis first from a spinal doctor. While diagnosing, your doctor will check your medical history and carry out a physical examination. They will look for signs like swelling and do movement tests to understand which actions are causing the symptoms. They might also ask for your day-to-day activities to obtain a good idea of actions that are putting your spine integrity at risk.

Because tendons are soft tissues, spinal tendonitis can’t be seen in a standard X-ray, but the doctor might suggest an X-ray to check for other issues such as spinal fractures or moving vertebral discs. Several other imaging tests can also be used for diagnosing spinal tendonitis, such as CT scans and MRI.

Most cases of spinal tendonitis can be treated with non-surgical treatments. When it is mild, taking rest for a few days or modifying your day-to-day activities to minimise stress on the soft tissues facilitates healing. The aim of any treatment other than rest is decreasing inflammation, which is causing nerve compression. Other conservative treatments include:

• Hot and cold compression
• Anti-inflammatory medicines
• Corticosteroid injections
• Platelet-rich injections for promoting healing
• Physical therapies

Surgical Intervention

When inflammation causes nerve pressure and does not heal after all conservative treatments, then surgical intervention becomes necessary. Surgery involves minimum invasion decompression processes. The specific kind of decompression surgery done depends on the extent of nerve irritation. For example, foraminotomy is performed to relieve pressure on the nerves that exit the spinal cord. Another example is facet thermal ablation, which is a process that decreases nerve pain.

Tendons are composed of several proteins, and thus, a diet rich in proteins can help in collagen production. This in turn keeps the tendon strong and healthy and reduces the risk of getting spinal tendonitis. Foods rich in protein are fish, poultry, lentils, etc. Foods rich in vitamins A, C, and E also help in the reduction of tendon inflammation and repair of tissues.

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