[Differential diagnosis of acute back pain and demarcation to other specialist fields]

The treatment of patients with acute back pain is becoming increasingly more important due to the high incidence; however, acute clinical pictures from other disciplines can also primarily be symptomatic with back pain and falsely lead to a consultation with an orthopedist. In order to assure an adequate treatment of potentially critical patients, it is absolutely necessary to exclude life-threatening differential diagnoses by a structured study of the patient history, investigations and diagnostics. Depending on the suspected diagnosis, necessary first aid measures and emergency referral to the appropriate specialist department should be initiated. This article gives an overview of selected clinical pictures and tries to look beyond the field of orthopedics.