Articles: back-pain.
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A longitudinal, prospective study was conducted on 3,020 aircraft employees to identify risk factors for reporting acute back pain at work. The premorbid data included individual physical, psychosocial, and workplace factors. During slightly more than 4 years of follow-up, 279 subjects reported back problems. ⋯ The quintile of subjects scoring highest on Scale-3 (Hy) of the MMPI were 2.0 times more likely to report a back injury (P = 0.0001) than subjects with the lowest scores. The multivariate model, including job task enjoyment, MMPI Scale-3, and history of back treatment, revealed that subjects in the highest risk group had 3.3 times the number of reports in the lowest risk group. These findings emphasize the importance of adopting a broader approach to the multifaceted problem of back complaints in industry and help explain why past prevention efforts focusing on purely physical factors have been unsuccessful.
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Associations between the frequency of medical visits and psychological disturbance were explored using chronic low back pain patients from a back education class. Psychometric measures included the illness Behaviour Questionnaire (IBQ), somatic problems, and current mood. ⋯ Additional predictors for specialist visits included a self-rated pain/mood association, sex, age, and IBQ denial. Patients' expectations and attitudes about illness and treatment appeared most central to medical visits and several different forms of psychological disturbance accompanied increased visits.
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The aim of this prospective study was to follow the pain and discomfort among dentists in the Public Dental Service in Malmöhus District and the Municipality of Malmö. In this investigation 311 dentists, who had answered questionnaires in 1987 and in 1990, took part. The prevalence of musculoskeletal pain and discomfort had increased, except the lower back pain and headache. ⋯ Of the 262 dentists with symptoms in 1987 twenty-four were without symptoms at the follow-up in 1990. The aim of the investigation was also to study the influence of some ergonomic factors on the course of symptoms. However, these ergonomic variables showed a low predictive value for recovery or for the development of pain and discomfort in the locomotor system.
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We describe a patient with sacral insufficiency fractures presenting as acute onset low back pain without antecedent trauma. Sacral insufficiency fractures are an often unsuspected cause of low back pain. The clinical presentation and plain radiograph findings can mimic metastatic disease, leading to unnecessary investigations and treatment. However, the location, linearity, and appearance of these fractures on computed tomography is very characteristic and obviates the need for further evaluation.
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Arch Orthop Trauma Surg · Jan 1991
Association of incipient disc degeneration and instability in spondylolisthesis. A magnetic resonance and flexion-extension radiographic study of 20-year-old low back pain patients.
The concurrence of early disc degeneration and abnormal segmental motion in spondylolysis of young low back pain patients (n = 14) was investigated using magnetic resonance imaging (MRI) and flexion-extension radiography. Seven patients with L5 spondylolisthesis had normal discs on MRI and 7 had disc degeneration below the slipped vertebra. ⋯ The present study shows that in adolescents the motion pattern and hydration of discs associated with spondylolysis and spondylolisthesis are not always abnormal. The early dehydration and degeneration of lumbar discs observed on MRI are not always associated with abnormal mobility of the corresponding motion segment.