Fast Facts: Low Back Pain

"Fast Facts: Low Back Pain" describes the causes and clinical assessment of low back pain, and aims to provide guidance on making appropriate therapeutic choices to gain optimal relief for each individual back pain patient.

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In 70 per cent of cases, low back pain has no obvious aetiology or pathogenesis, so what makes the back hurt? Most back pain is actually muscular or ligamentous in origin, rather than skeletal, and so radiography, including computed tomography (CT), will usually provide no meaningful information, despite the emphasis placed on it by both doctors and society. Ultrasonography or magnetic resonance imaging (MRI), however, may show a soft tissue abnormality. Close clinical examination may often reveal the site of the pathology and the opportunity for cure. "Fast Facts - Low Back Pain" describes the causes and clinical assessment of low back pain, and aims to provide guidance on making appropriate therapeutic choices to gain optimal relief for each individual back pain patient.