Acute low back pain: diagnostics and treatment

How many times have you heard from a patient or groaned yourself "Oh, my aching back?" Innocuous movements such as reaching, stooping, or leaning are halted mid-performance as you sense "something" give, catch, snap, grab, or slide in your lower back. Such subjective complaints may also include sensations of discomfort described as stabbing, sharp, dull, hot/burning, tingling, or numbing. In practice, you will be required to assess these subjective symptoms, effectively document objective data, formulate a diagnosis, and plan appropriate treatment for your patients. Careful attention to history, associated symptoms, and following a systematic approach to back pain can make the rule-in/out differentials less taxing on both the practitioner and the patient.