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What are the symptoms of acute low back pain?
What are the causes?
How is "sudden onset" back pain best treated?
What if I have leg pain as well as back pain?
“IN AN ACUTE EPISODE OF BACK PAIN, THE CHANCES OF IT HEALING SPONTANEOUSLY ARE VERY HIGH.”
What are the symptoms of acute low back pain?
Between the ages of 30 and 60, 80% of people experience back pain from time to time, with or without radiation to the buttocks or legs. This back pain sometimes occurs suddenly without clear cause and is spectacularly painful, but usually the complaints disappear again (even spontaneously) after one to two weeks. Besides this non-specific back pain, there is also back pain caused by a specific cause.
Non-specific back pain is the most common.
“Patients often anxiously wait for a precise ‘diagnosis’ of their back pain, while it is precisely the experience of health care providers that this pain is usually not caused by a back injury, but by a temporary dysfunction, which cannot be seen on an X-ray or an MRI. Imaging is therefore unnecessary and treatment should be as non-medical as possible in the first instance. The risk is that patients will interpret this as nonchalance on the part of the healthcare provider.”
What are the causes?
Acute back pain comes on suddenly. There may be a connection with a triggering factor such as lifting a heavy load or a heavy cough or sneezing. On the other hand, a banal minimal "wrong" movement is sometimes enough to trigger acute back pain. The back is suddenly very painful and becomes rock hard, making it very difficult to move. It can be considered a kind of severe cramp of the back muscles.
Usually there is no injury to the back that causes these severe symptoms. So this back pain is certainly not always caused by a problem of the intervertebral disc and a disc hernia is not always the cause of complaints..... You can compare it to a headache: everyone has it from time to time, but almost always (and fortunately) it is not caused by a (brain) injury. That is why imaging with RX photos and scanners is not useful for acute back pain.
How is "sudden onset" back pain best treated?
You are advised to adopt a wait-and-see attitude. The back pain can be very spectacular and very painful. This is often experienced as very serious, but it is not. Often, the complaints disappear almost completely after one or two weeks.
It is therefore recommended to continue with your normal daily life as much as possible. If possible, continue to move and work. Rest, let alone bed rest, is not recommended. This only weakens the back muscles (further) and has a negative influence on the further evolution.
Painkillers can be prescribed if functioning is impaired too much by the pain or blockage. Local heat in the form of showers, baths or heat lamps have a soothing effect but do not cure.
Physiotherapy can have a relaxing effect on the cramped back.
BACK PAIN CANNOT be treated with ENDOSCOPY
If I have leg pain as well as back pain?
If with back pain there is also radiation to the upper leg, lower leg or foot, it is sciatica. This radiating pain sometimes occurs together with the occurring back pain. However, it often happens that the back pain actually passes (spontaneously) and then the radiating pain in the leg arises and stays.