Acute pain in the back causes, symptoms, diagnosis, treatment

In some cases, the patient can be difficult to stand up. Acute pain in the back can last from a few days to several weeks.

Causes of acute pain

Most people at least once in their life have experienced back pain. Even if the pain or discomfort can appear at any level, often affected is the lumbar area. This happens because the loins are forced to bear the weight of the whole body and the head.

The back pain is the second most frequency reason for resorting to the doctor, second only to colds and flu.

Usually, for the first time, the acute pain in the back appear after the lifting of a heavy object, strong movement, an injury, or long sitting in one pose.

Acute pain in the back, often, is the result of a sudden trauma of the muscles and the ligaments of the back, herniated lumbar disc of the vertebral column. The pain, in these cases, it may be caused by a muscle spasm, stretching or tearing of muscles and ligaments.

Causes of acute pain lumbar include:

• vertebral fractures by compression due to an injury or osteoporosis;
• muscle spasm (excessive muscular tension);
• hernia;
• the sciatica;
• the stenosis (narrowing) of the spinal canal);
• the curvature of the spine (e.g., scoliosis or kyphosis) including disease Chairman Mau;
• stretching/tearing of muscles or ligaments of the back;
• spondylosis;
• spondylolisthesis;
• infection of the spine (discitis, abscess.

A sharp pain to the back can also cause systemic diseases:

• diffuse disease of the connective tissue;
• ankylosing Spondylitis;
• malignant tumor of vertebral column;
• the rheumatoid arthritis.

Causes of acute pain not associated with spinal problems or fabrics back:

• aneurysm of the abdominal aorta;
• diseases of the gastrointestinal tract: pancreatitis, gastric ulcer, cholecystitis;
• herpes zoster;
• diseases of the pelvic organs: endometriosis, prostatitis, pelvic inflammation;
• disease space retroperitoneal: renal colic, pyelonephritis;
• pregnancy.

The symptoms

The symptoms of acute pain vary greatly depending on the cause. You may feel numbness, tingling, pain can be different, as well as the intensity of pain from mild discomfort to pain, that you can hardly bear. Also, the back pain is often combined with pain in the foot, hip, foot. In some cases, it may appear a weakness in the leg.

Here are some examples of the symptoms, specific for different diseases and conditions:

• when a herniated disk, low back pain, often in the lower leg, leg pain and more severe back pain, and aggravated in the sitting position or after sleep. The back pain can give to the buttock, thigh and down the leg to the foot. May experience a feeling of tingling, numbness in foot and toes of the foot, in rare cases, weakness of the muscles of the foot;
• when the muscle tension lumbar spine: diffuse back pain, that does not give the step or the buttock; it intensifies when you are driving and it relaxes you to sleep;
• stenosis of the spinal canal: the pain in the back and on the leg, leg pain and more severe back pain, as well as the stenosis of the spinal canal is often accompanied by the development of intervertebral hernias; aggravated in the upright position and during walking, weakened in the rest, and bend back. The pain can be unilateral and bilateral;
• when diffuse connective tissue disease: pain in various joints, fever, weight loss, weakness;
• in osteomyelitis: constant pain, often the normal temperature, in accordance with cbc, the increase in the velocity of erythrocyte sedimentation (ESR) and/or the level of c-reactive protein.

Diagnostics

On board doctor will conduct an interview with the patient, the question about the nature and severity of the pain and other symptoms, will collect information on medical history and a physical examination. On the basis of the data of the interview and the visit to the doctor can make a diagnosis, or preliminary diagnosis, to confirm and/or clarify with the help of medical tests. Medical tests can be different, starting from the analysis of the blood, and ends his studies of nerve conduction. The most popular of the survey include:

X-ray

The x-ray done in order to assess the state of the bone tissue of the patient. The diagnosis that you can put through the x-ray, include osteoporosis, compression fracture, and bone outgrowths (osteophytes);

Resonance (MRI)

The advantage of magnetic RESONANCE imaging before other studies consists in the fact that through magnetic RESONANCE imaging, it is possible to obtain high-quality, rich image detail, not only of bone but also of soft tissues: muscles, ligaments, blood vessels, nerves, intervertebral discs, spinal cord, and so on

The most common diagnosis of the findings of magnetic RESONANCE imaging:

• herniated disc;
• narrowing (stenosis) of the spinal canal;
• spondylitis.

Other diagnoses that can be made with magnetic RESONANCE imaging:

• ankylosing spondylitis (type of arthritis);
• the infection of the bones;
• the cauda equina syndrome;
• compression fractures;
• discitis (inflammation of the intervertebral disc);
• abscess of the spinal cord;
• damage to the spinal cord;
• a tumor in the spine.

Computed tomography (CT)

Computed tomography also allows you to get images of not only bone, but also soft tissue, but the image quality is very inferior to the quality of the images obtained during the mri, then CT scan is recommended in such a case, if in possession of a magnetic RESONANCE imaging, for some reason, it is impossible or difficult, for example, in the presence of pacemaker or metal structures in the body.

Treatment

What you can do at home with acute pain?

• limit physical activity for 1-2 days. This will help to relieve the symptoms and to dampen the inflammation in the painful area;
• the affixing of the warmer or bladder with ice to the painful area;
• welcome to otc pain medication. Not worth the effort to take these drugs in larger amount than indicated in the instructions, take medications should be not more than 3 days. If the pain does not pass - it is necessary to consult a doctor.

During sleep, best to take the position of the embryo and putting a pillow in between the legs. If You are used to sleeping on your back, put under the knees pillow or a rolled up towel, to relieve the load on the back.

If the cause of the back pain more serious, then the patient needs a specific treatment, depending on the disease or condition that caused the pain, and here already can not do without the help of experts.

One of the most common causes of acute pain, which has need of a special treatment, is a hernia of the disc. The treatment of herniated disc is usually conservative, only occasionally, doctors must resort to surgical techniques. There is a large number of conservative treatment of herniated disc. Here are just a few of them:

• The pharmacological treatment. The pharmacological treatment involves the reception of painkillers and anti-inflammatory medications.
• Traction of the spine. What is the exhaust system leads to complications with respect to traction underwater on the tables with the carrier of the cargo or goods. Spinal traction allows you to recover part of the food, and, as a result, the status of the intervertebral discs, and contributes to reducing the size of the disc herniation;
• Therapeutic massage. The types of therapeutic massages are different. In general, this method aims to achieve the relaxation of the muscles of the back, relieve muscle spasms, which often accompany the back pain;
• Medical gymnastics. Medical gymnastics aims to strengthen the small muscles of the back;
• Hirudotherapy
  Hirudotherapy reduces the inflammation around the hernia, and reduces the pain. It is an alternative to painkillers.
• The surgical treatment. The surgical treatment of the herniated disc is recommended only to patients that will not help the conservative treatment means, provided that this treatment was performed regularly and systematically, as well as patients, allowing treatment with the symptoms expressed neurological deficit: weakness in the foot, paresis, paralysis in legs, numbness in the groin area, the violation of control for the functions of urination and/or defecation. All of the above symptoms are the indications for urgent surgical intervention in the spine.