Do You Have Back Pain?
May 20, 2009
Back pain is one of the most frequent problems, which is being experienced by majority of adults’ nowadays. It is a symptom that may restrict movement. Usually, it is not a serious problem but at times due to ignorance and lack of proper timely management, it may become a serious health issue.
Human back or spine is a very complicated anatomical structure comprising
of many nerves, ligaments, muscles and tendons. The spine is divided into four major areas, namely, cervical, thoracic, lumbar and sacral.
Types of backache
On the basis of spinal region affected, it may be cervical backache, thoracic backache, lumbar backache or sacral backache.
On the basis of duration, it may be acute or chronic. Acute backache is of sudden onset, brief in duration (less than 20-25 days) and seizes suddenly. Chronic backache is of slow onset, longer in duration (over a month) and it may or may not get cured completely.
Causes
The reason may be muskuloskeletal (bone disease, muscle spasm, muscle strain), trauma (any fall or accidental injury), cancer (almost all cancers have the symptom of backache associated with them), some infection or it may be idiopathic (with unknown cause).
Other causes can be bad posture, prolonged sitting hours, excessive weight bearing and pregnancy. Psychosocial aspects (monotonous work, mental stress, depression) are also important to be ruled out.
Precipitating factors include heavy physical work, motor vehicle driving (vibration effect), injury etc.
Symptoms include pain in the concerned region (e.g. cervical / lumbar), bladder or bowel symptoms (when sacral region is affected), fever (in case of infections) and numbness or weakness in legs (in cases of spinal reasons).
Useful investigations in finding out the cause of backache are X-rays, MRI, CT scan, bone scan, ultrasound etc.
Treatment includes knowing the exact underlying cause, rest (as short as possible), staying active, reassurance, physical therapy and pain medications. Physiotherapy, ultrasound and heat treatment may also be helpful.
Back pain usually settles within a few days or weeks. However, in case of severity, surgery may be necessary.
It is to be noted here that sciatica is a different kind of pain (not back pain) that is very severe, radiating from back to lower legs, causing a great concern for the patient.
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