Low back pain (LBP) ranks 2nd among common medical symptoms, 5th in causes of hospitalization, and 3rd in leading to surgical procedures in the USA. Degenerative disc disease (DDD) is generally considered as a major cause of LBP. Immunohistochemical studies showed LBP as microvascular blood vessels accompanied nerve fibers growing into the pain level disc and these are expressed as nerve growth factor. LBP treatments include medication, steroid injection, physical therapy, surgery, etc. Most are temporal pain relief or destructive to the disc requiring post-surgical care with high complication rates, and often lead to instability of the motion segments. One of the solutions to the LBP would be an injectable carrier that provides a long-term pain relief without destroying the disc. One of the solutions to the LBP would be an injectable carrier that provides a long-term pain relief without destructing the disc. The objective of this study is to develop a microsphere (MS)-dispersed in-situ forming hydrogel matrix, which contains pain relieving drug(s) in both the MS and the matrix.
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