Low back pain describes a variety of diseases with different presentations and pathologies. Generally it refers to pain from the lower lumbar area, that is somewhere below the margin of the ribs and above the inferior gluteal fold. Back pain is a common symptom, and more than half of the population will experience back pain during their lifetime. There are many pathologies that can result in back pain, but specific pathology may not be defined in every patient with back pain. This is non-specific low back pain, and it can be diagnosed after exclusion of significant pathology by an Orthopaedic Surgeon. The Orthopaedic Spine Surgeon will assess the individual patient, and prepare for the management plan which will best suit the patients.
Generally, a lot of the symptoms related to it are well-amendable to rehabilitation. It would be important to differentiate specific back pain from nonspecific back pain in order to design the best treatment. The Orthopaedic Spine Surgeon will first look for any “red flag sign”, which may indicate sinister pathology or significant complications. In that case, specific treatment should be offered timely to prevent irreversible complications.
For most of the non-specific low back pain, rehabilitation could be offered to help to alleviate the painful symptoms and return the patients back to their normal function. Physiotherapist could use different modalities of treatment to control the pain, and treatment could then be tailored to the response of the patients. The condition of the patients should be carefully monitored by the Orthopaedic Spine Surgeon to fine-tune the treatment for back pain.
The treatment for specific low back pain will be focused according to the different disease pathology. Prolapsed intervertebral disc and spinal stenosis are common examples of specific back pain that rehabilitation forms an important part of management. The response may vary with different patients, and the treatment could be adjusted according to individual patientsí progress. If conservative treatment fails, the Orthopaedic Spine Surgeon could decide the best available surgical treatment for better symptoms control.