Luigi Mangione, the 26-year-old arrested and charged in connection with the murder of United Healthcare CEO Brian Thompson, appears to be suffering from a back condition called spondylolisthesis, which can cause severe pain, his social media says -Suggest reports. Mangione had reportedly been living with chronic pain before undergoing back surgery in 2023, Business Insider reported. An image on his

Here’s what you should know about Mangione’s apparent injury, surgery and pain.

What we know about Mangione’s back injury

Aside from the X-ray of his apparent X account, Mangione shared in a handwritten note that he suffers from spondylolisthesis, according to Business Insider. The condition apparently worsened after Mangione went surfing in Hawaii, where he began living in 2022. A post from a Reddit account that appeared to belong to Mangione, a group dedicated to the condition, described feeling pain and numbness in his back. Limbs and groin for a year and a half. A later post from the same account described the injury as “completely devastating.”

Mangione apparently wrote in another post that he underwent “conservative” treatment for his back pain for 1.5 years until he reported back surgery in 2023, adding that he “didn’t take any painkillers” within a week of the surgery. need. But in May of this year, he republished an X post in which he called most doctors “basically worthless” (the post has since been deleted), Business Insider reported.

What is Spondylolisthesis?

The condition occurs when one or more vertebrae in the spine slip out of place, explains Dr. Uzma Samadani, a Minnesota neurologist who specializes in spine surgery, told Yahoo Life. Because vertebrae normally sit neatly on top of each other, slippage can compress both the disc, which forms a cushion between the bones, and the bundle of nerves that run through it, leading to acute pain, chronic pain, or both, says Samadani.

How does it happen?

Spondylolisthesis affects between 4 and 8% of the U.S. population, and the most common form, degenerative spondylolisthesis, may be due to the wear and tear of normal aging, according to the Cleveland Clinic. It is far less common in young people like Mangione, but when young people do develop spondylolisthesis, it often occurs after a back fracture due to sports activities or traumatic accidents such as a serious fall.

How painful is spondylolisthesis?

Back pain in general is a known cause of chronic pain. Both Samadani and pain management specialist Dr. Beth Darnall from Stanford University say spondylolisthesis is a problem common cause of back pain. “It’s such a common problem that people with back pain should be evaluated to find out if they have back pain,” says Samadani.

And it can be quite painful. “If the nerves are pinched… it can be very painful to put any strain on the spine,” Samadani adds. “It is an unbearable pain that does not go away even with conservative treatment. Medications won’t help, injections won’t help.” (According to the Cleveland Clinic, most cases of spondylolisthesis can be effectively treated with rest, pain medications, steroid injections and physical therapy, but more severe cases may require surgery.)

The severity of the disease also plays a role. If a vertebra is only slightly out of place, the pain may be manageable without surgery, suggests the Cleveland Clinic. However, with spondylolisthesis, a higher “grade” – or degree of slippage – can cause much more pain and require aggressive treatment. RJ Martin, a friend of Mangione’s who lived with him in Hawaii, told the New York Times that “Mangione’s lower vertebrae were almost half an inch away, and I think it pinched a nerve.” Sometimes he was fine, sometimes not.”

Darnall says chronic pain can profoundly impact a person’s life and stability. “About 10% of people suffer from severe chronic pain,” she says. “This is chronic pain that really impacts everyday activities, school work, and daily self-care. These people are more likely to really struggle with their mood and the ability to get restful sleep to cope with the grief and anxiety that can naturally accompany pain.”

Delays in treatment are not uncommon

According to multiple reports, Mangione did not mention on any social media that he was reported by United Healthcare or was particularly upset about it. However, Samadani, who treats patients with spondylolisthesis, points out that many insurers require patients to undergo six to 12 weeks of physical therapy before companies are willing to cover surgery or even imaging tests to diagnose the condition. And for someone with severe spondylolisthesis, physical therapy can be “excruciating” and not necessarily helpful, she adds. “It’s a form of torture, insurance company-mandated torture,” Samadani says.

And that is if they are treated at all. Samadani says she has seen several young patients who were initially turned away by doctors who didn’t believe they could have chronic back pain. “For this particular child, I suspect he was in massive amounts of pain,” she says.