Articles: back-pain.
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Low back pain is among one of the most common presentations to the emergency department (ED). Regional anesthesia has recently gained traction as an option for analgesia in ED patients, especially in the wake of the opioid epidemic. ⋯ We describe a series of three cases of patients who presented to the ED with severe low back pain refractory to traditional therapy, successfully treated using lumbar ESPB. Lumbar ESPB may be an effective approach to achieving rapid analgesia in patients who present with low back pain who may otherwise be poor candidates for more traditional therapy, such as with opioids or NSAIDs, or who may have refractory pain despite use of these medications.
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Spinal epidural abscess (SEA) is a rare, catastrophic condition for which diagnostic delays are common. Our national group develops evidence-based guidelines, known as clinical management tools (CMT), to reduce high-risk misdiagnoses. We study whether implementation of our back pain CMT improved SEA diagnostic timeliness and testing rates in the emergency department (ED). ⋯ Back pain CMT implementation was associated with an increased rate of recommended imaging and laboratory testing in back pain. There was no associated reduction in the proportion of SEA cases with a related prior visit or time to SEA diagnosis.
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Lumbar spondylolysis is one of the most common causes of low back pain and primarily affects children and adolescents. Traditional posterior lumbar fixation and interbody fusion surgery has always been the most effective method to treat spondylolysis. However, traditional surgical management has limitations of large trauma, complex operation, high cost, postoperative biomechanical deterioration, and resulting complications. ⋯ A novel minimally invasive therapeutic approach is presented herein of an SEC injection guided by C-arm fluoroscopy to treat lumbar spondylolysis. We describe a novel technique applied in a patient with lumbar spondylolysis, who showed significantly improved low back pain symptoms and a computed tomography scan, including osseous fusion of the bilateral isthmus at L4 after SEC therapy. This is the first reported case description of using an SEC injection to treat lumbar spondylolysis with a successful clinical outcome.
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Meta Analysis
Incidence of lumbar spondylolysis in athletes with low back pain: A systematic evaluation and single-arm meta-analysis.
Low back pain (LBP) is a common chief complaint from athletes. Lumbar spondylolysis (LS) is a common sport injury. Severe LS is likely to cause spinal instability, resulting in lumbar spondylolisthesis or lumbar disc herniation, and even damage to the spinal nerve roots. The incidence of LS is approximately 5% in the adult population, and nearly half of young athletes with LBP are diagnosed with LS. This meta-analysis analyzed the incidence of LS in athletes with LBP. ⋯ The estimated prevalence of LS in athletes with LBP is 41.7%, and future correlations between the prevalence of LS in adolescent athletes worldwide need to be assessed from different perspectives, including biomechanical, hormonal, anatomical, behavioral, and gender differences.
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Randomized Controlled Trial
Hypertonic glucose in the treatment of low back pain: A randomized clinical trial.
Chronic low back pain (LBP) is defined as pain lasting longer than 3 months and is one of the conditions with the most significant social impact. Treatment is complex and includes proliferative agents used in prolotherapy. The mechanism is not known, but osmotic agents (hypertonic solutions of dextrose or glucose) cause cellular rupture and an inflammatory response that releases cytokines and growth factors that lead to scarring and reinnervation. ⋯ Both groups significantly improved on the evaluated scales during follow-up. Overall, no effects were attributable to the glucose components or the prolotherapy protocol.