MUSCLE STRAIN SCIATICA A HERNIATED DISC WHAT ARE CAUSES OF BACK PAIN: IS BACK PAIN DANGEROUS

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More than 70% of adults have back pain at some time in their lives. Back pain is the eighth leading reason for a visit to a doctor. Americans spend $26 billion dollars a year on back pain treatment. You bend over to lift a heavy piece of furniture and as you lift it you feel a sharp pain in your back. You feel pain in your back and down your leg and people tell you it's sciatica. You have been working out after a long hiatus and the next morning your back hurts. You have been doing some very heavy lifting and now you are getting back pain with numbness that runs down the back of your leg into the foot.

Presentations of Back Pain

These are all presentations of back pain. Back pain has a variety of causes from the benign but uncomfortable to the dangerous. When you come to see the doctor he or she will ask a lot of questions about the history surrounding your complaints as well as doing an exam and this will enable the doctor to form a differential diagnosis, a list of possible explanations that might explain the back pain. The doctor may ask questions like:

When did the back pain start?

What were you doing?

Any pain in the legs?

Any numbness?

What makes it better or worse?

Read about study that asks if Americans are winning war against back pain



It could actually be dangerous to not see a doctor for back pain. For example, in some cases back pain may have nothing to do with a "pulled muscle" or a "slipped disc" and could actually be caused by a tumor or other serious condition. Even though the natural history of back pain is favorable, it is important not to miss red flags for potentially very dangerous problems.One of the goals of the clinical examination is "to identify patients who require immediate surgical evaluation and those whose symptoms suggest a more serious underlying condition such as malignancy or infection".For example, there is an uncommon problem called Cauda Equina Syndrome. Cauda Equina Syndrome occurs when the nerve roots are compressed and paralyzed, cutting off sensation and movement. Nerve roots that control the function of the bladder and bowel are especially vulnerable to damage. Patients with signs of Cauda Equina Syndrome, such as bowel or bladder dysfunction, both sided sciatica or leg weakness, or numbness in a saddle distribution, require urgent surgical referral.




Among the tests that might be ordered are

an xray

ct scan

mri.

They all have their strengths and shortcomings. For example, an xray is not very good at finding a herniated disc. In a herniated disc, the disc that separates two bones of the spine, the vertebra, is herniated so that the disc can push out and put pressure on the nerves. You've probably heard of sciatica. In sciatica there is pressure on the nerves that come out at the lower vertebra L4, L5 level and run into the legs. That's why a disc in the back can cause pain or numbness into the legs.

Treatments for Back Pain

Among the treatments doctors use for back pain are

Physical therapy

Anti inflammatory medicines

Muscle relaxer medicines

Pain medicine

Osteopathic manipulation

Exercise

Surgery

Acupuncture

Rest

Evaluation and Treatment of Acute Low Back Pain



The statistics above were quoted from Healing a Bad Back Is Often an Effort in Painful Futility, an article that appeared in the New York Times. Further, they quote Dr. Richard Deyo of the University of Washington as saying, "a variety of studies have suggested that in 85 percent of cases it is impossible to say why a person's back hurts". That really seems like a very high number. What's clear is that alot of people do get relief from seeing a doctor and getting treated.