[Mechanism of intractable low back pain and neural blockade]

Low back pain is one of the most prevalent complaints in clinical medicine. Sensations from the axial skeleton and the surrounding tissues are only vaguely somatotopic and are non-specific in quality. The diagnosis of the mechanism or source of low back pain is therefore very challenging. The treatment of low back pain that recurs, persists or intensifies is also formidable, because there has been no evidence of various therapies for chronic back pain. From the prophylactic viewpoint of chronic pain, the most considerable matter is early elimination of severe pain under certain diagnosis. In this article, the mechanisms of passing into the chronic state, especially the development of neuropathic pain, and the utilities of diagnostic and therapeutic neural blockade for low back pain are discussed.