Adam Rufa - 5/6/2006

Question
Hello!

I'd like to know what kind of back problems can be hard to track and identify clearly?

Is there any back pain that moder medication can't diagnose precisely?

Tknk's in advance.

Answer
I would say that just about all back pain is hard to track and identify. There is no good gold standard for diagnosing the source of low back pain. The best diagnostic tool for low back pain is probably injection guided by x-ray but even that is not great.


PT research is going in the direction of not trying to identify the cause of LBP. Instead, researches are identifying certain characteristics that predict what treatments will work best for a particular patient population. For example, we know that if your have had back pain for a long time, manipulation is less effective. If your back has only been around for a few weeks manipulation is often very effective.

Adam