Posts Tagged ‘diagnosing back pain’

Diagnosing Back Pain

Free Back Pain eBook and Video

Lower back pain is a painful condition that can put people out of work for weeks and reduce their ability to do basic activities like climbing stairs or getting in and out of bed.Even putting on your shoes or pants can be a painful ordeal.  Low back pain is responsible for a vast majority of workman’s compensation issues.  And, fortunately, chronic or acute lower back pain is preventable by maintaining good strong and flexible back muscles.

Self Examination

When you’ve injured your lower back there are several things you can do at home to help start treatment. Ice your back for the first 3 days and don’t stay in bed. Take take over the counter analgesics like ibuprofen to help decrease the pain. But if these measures  don’t significantly reduce the pain in 3 days time it’s time to see the doctor.

See A Doctor

Lower back pain can be a result of several different factors and it’s up to the doctor to find the cause so that the best treatment can be recommended.  The doctor will start with a thorough medical history and physical examination.  This will help them to identify any dangerous conditions  or family history that could be associated with the back pain.The doctor will  ask when the pain started, where it started and the severity of the pain, how long the pain lasts and how it feels.  The doctor will ask about limitations in movement and will also ask the individual to make movements that may or may not elicit the pain.

Doctors may also run blood tests to look for possible reasons not to order specific medications or other reasons that the individual may be feeling back pain.  If the doctor isn’t able to determine the reason for the back pain through medical history and examination he or she may also recommend imaging tests.

diagnostic testing back pain

Diagnostic Tests
There are several types of diagnostic tests your physician might ask you to take:

  1. X-Rays.  X-rays are pretty conventional but some of the more enhanced methods can help diagnose back pain.  The x-ray looks for broken bones or an injured vertebra. It will will show the bony structures and any vertebral misalignments.  Other tissue injuries such as muscle or bulging discs are not visible in these imaging tests.
  2. Discography. A discography is an imaging test where a technician injects a special contrast dye into a spinal disc that the doctor believes is causing the low back pain.  The dye will outline the damaged area on x-ray and is suggested for individuals who are considering undergoing a lumbar surgery or whose pain hasn’t responded to conventional treatment.
  3. Myelograms. Myelograms are another imaging technique that improves the diagnostic imaging possibilities.  Contrast dye is injected into the spinal canal which allows the spinal cord and any nerve compression by a herniated disc to be seen on x-ray.
  4. Imaging .Computerized tomography (CT) is a painless imaging process used when the doctor believes that a disc has ruptured, there is spinal stenosis or damage to the vertebrae is suspected.  This is a specialized test and requires an expensive machine that will be located at an imaging center or hospital.
  5. MRI.  A magnetic resonance imaging (MRI) test is used to see more soft tissue than the CT scan will normally show.  It is also more expensive than a CT scan.  MRI scanning will look at tissue and nerves, muscles, ligaments and blood vessels.  Radio waves are passed through the body using a magnet.  The images are passed to a computer which slices the images and differentiates between bone, soft tissue and fluid filled spaces.

Other imaging scans may include elctrodiagnostic procedures such as EMGs.  Doctors may use bone scans or ultrasound imaging to look for ligaments, muscle, tendon or other soft tissue masses in the back that could be causing low back pain.

Published by Relief For Back Pain

Other Relevant Posts:

Simple Test Better at Diagnosing Chronic Back Pain

There may a better way to diagnose chronic back pain than what is currently being used. Researchers from Massachusetts General Hospital .

A Closer Look At Back Pain

That is, pain arising from other organs appears to be from the vertebral column. Your physician needs to study the various possible reasons while diagnosing you. Most women experience low back ache. The pain can radiate to other parts …

Hands-On Relief From Back Pain

Learn why diagnosing back pain is so difficult and get tips on staying pain-free. Watch Video. click to expand/contract BOTOX for Back Pain. For those plagued with persistent back problems, chronic muscle spasms can be a real pain in …

The Difficulty of Diagnosing Sacroiliac Joint Pain

Too many patients with pain around the SI area end up with a problem originating someplace else. And too many patients with true SI joint problems have buttock, leg, or back pain (not SI joint pain). With that out as a gold standard, …

Stroking Can Ease Pain Signals Received By Brain

April 7th, 2009 WASHINGTON – Researchers from Massachusetts General Hospital (MGH) have devised a simple bedside test that can effectively diagnose chronic back pain. According to the study, the new test is better than currently used …

Diagnosing the Cause of Lower Back Pain

When determining the underlying cause of low back pain, both the type of low back pain (a description of how the pain feels) and the area of pain distribution (where the pain is felt) help guide the physician in making a preliminary …

Deal Radar 2009: SpineMatrix

With the results of the scan, a physician can diagnose the reason behind low back pain and tell the patient if the source of the pain is a disc, a facet or a muscle. President and CEO Ben Shappley has over 25 years of orthopedic and …

Test Sheds Light On Back Pain

A new test could determine whether his pain is due to nerve damage. Neuropathic pain is commonly described as “burning” or “stabbing” but it is often difficult to formally diagnose. Back pain is the most commonly cited reason for being …

 

 

Technorati Tags: , , , , , , , , , ,

Search
SiteLock Security
website security