low back pain tagged posts

Lumbar spine MRI showing vertebra at baseline and three months after treatment. Credit: Radiological Society of North America

The majority of patients were pain free after receiving a new image-guided pulsed radiofrequency treatment for low back pain and sciatica, according to a study presented today at the annual meeting of the Radiological Society of North America (RSNA). Low back pain is an extremely common problem that affects at least 80% of the population at some point in their lifetime. It is the most common cause of job-related disability. Low back pain affects men and women equally.

Most back pain is short-term, but about 20% of people affected by acute low back pain go on to develop chronic low back pain lasting a year or more...

Exercise, alone or in combination with education, may reduce the risk of low back pain, a meta-analysis and review of medical literature suggests. Daniel Steffens, Ph.D., of the University of Sydney, Australia, and coauthors identified 23 published reports (on 21 different randomized clinical trials including 30,850 participants) that met their inclusion criteria.

Moderate-quality evidence suggests exercise combined with education reduces the risk of an episode of low back pain and low- to very low-quality evidence suggests exercise alone may reduce the risk of both a low back pain episode and the use of sick leave. Other interventions, including education alone, back belts and shoe inserts do not appear to be associated with the prevention of low back pain.

“Although our review found evi...