Medicine
Volume 37, Issue 1 , Pages 17-22, January 2009

Acute back pain

Jennifer Hamilton MRCP is a Consultant Physician with an interest in rheumatology at the Queen Elizabeth Hospital in Gateshead, Tyne and Wear, UK. She qualified from Glasgow University, UK, and trained in general medicine and rheumatology in Glasgow, UK. Conflicts of interest: none declared

Abstract 

Back pain will affect 60–80% of the population in industrialized countries. The majority of back pain (90%) will settle in 6 weeks. For the majority of patients, keeping active and optimization of analgesia using regular simple analgesic agents will suffice. This article describes how to identify back pain red flags, indicative of serious spinal pathology, how to assess for markers of chronicity (yellow flags) and when to refer for further investigation and specialist input.

Keywords: acute back pain, lumbar radiculopathy, simple back pain, vertebral wedge fracture

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PII: S1357-3039(08)00311-3

doi:10.1016/j.mpmed.2008.10.006

Medicine
Volume 37, Issue 1 , Pages 17-22, January 2009

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