Low Back Pain
Back pain is an extremely common human phenomenon. Almost 80 per cent of persons
in modern industrial society will experience back pain at some time during their life.
Causes
Inflammatory causes
- Tuberculosis
- Ankylosing spondylitis
Degenerative
- Osteoarthritis
- Neoplastic
Traumatic causes
- Sprain, strain
- Vertebral fractures
- Prolapsed disc
Congenital causes
- Spina bifida
- Lumbar scoliosis
- Spondylolysis
- Spondylolisthesis
- Transitional vertebra
- Facet tropism
Metabolic causes
- Osteoporosis
- Osteomalacia
- Pain referred from viscera
- Miscellaneous causes
- Functional back pain
- Postural back pain
Signs & Symptoms
- Pain in lower back
- Stiffness
- Tingling sensation
- Neurological Symptoms like paraesthesias, numbness or weakness
- Altered posture ( exaggerated kyphosis, lordosis, anterior/posterior pelvic tilt)
- Tenderness
- Spasm over back and thigh
Pathology
Stages of disc prolapse
- Stage of Degeneration
- Stage of Protrusion
- Stage of Extrusion
- Stage of Sequestration
Sciatica
Sciatica is a symptom and not a diagnosis. It means a pain radiating down the back of the thigh and calf. Degenerative arthritis & disc prolapses are the common causes.
Other causes of sciatica Inflammatory
- Sciatic neuritis
- Arachnoiditis
- Nerve root compression
- Compression in the vertebral canal by disc, tumour,tuberculosis
- Compression in the intervertebral foramen due to root canal stenosis because of OA
- Spondylolisthesis, Facetarthropathy or Tumors.
- Compression in the buttock or pelvis by Abscess,Tumour, Hematoma
