More than half of the millions of
people who suffer from back pain never find out exactly what's wrong. This does
not mean, however, that you cannot be treated successfully. Quite the contrary!
Over the past few years, health care professionals have realized that, when it
comes to treating back pain, it's almost always enough to know the category (or
categories) into which the problem falls. Narrowing the problem down further
doesn't usually make a whole lot of difference since the conservative treatment
for each category is more or less the same. Furthermore, 85% of patients will
have more than one problem triggering their pain. The pain can be evaluated by
organizing the possible causes as originating from two (2) areas and tree (3)
compartments:
1) Spinal Area
a)
Anterior Compartment of the spine
i)
Vertebral bodies
(1)
Vertebral fractures
(2)
Vertebral collapse
(3)
Metastatic disease (cancer or tumors)
(4)
Vertebral body instability
ii)
Sympathetic Chain
iii)
Vertebral disks
(1)
Disk tears
(2)
Herniated Nucleous Pulposus (HNP)
(3)
Annular disruption
(4)
Spondylolisthesis
iv)
Psoas Muscle (sprains and/or strains)
b)
Middle Compartment of the Spine
i)
Spinal Stenosis
(1)
Acquired
(2)
Congenital
(a)
Congenital short pedicles
ii)
Foraminal Stenosis
(1)
Facet Hypertrophy
(2)
Posterior Spurring
iii)
Spinal Cord Tumors
iv)
Disc Herniations/Protrusions
v)
Segmental Nerves
vi)
Spinal Cord
vii)
Epidural scar tissue
c)
Posterior Compartment of the spine
i)
Spondylosis
ii)
Paravertebral Muscles (sprains and/or strains)
iii)
Ligaments
iv)
Facet Joints
2) Area surrounding the spine
a)
Abdominal Aorta
i)
Aneurysm
b)
Kidney Disease
i)
Nephrolithiasis (Kidney Stones)
c)
Retroperitoneal Disease
i)
Retroperitoneal hematomas
d)
Pancreatic Disease
i)
Pancreatitis
ii)
Pancreatic Cancer
e)
Pelvis
f)
Hip
The job of your physician is to
quickly sort through all of these possibilities, eliminating the most serious
and life-threatening. Any time that there is a change in the character or
quality of your chronic pain, you should have this evaluated by your primary
care physician, to make sure that it is not something serious.