Acute & Chronic Back Pain

Lower Back Pain Relief Specialist – Anchorage, AK

Back pain affects 8 out of 10 individuals at some point in their lifetime and is one of the leading causes of job-related disability and missed work.^1,2 A survey by the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention reports that nearly 30% of adults have experienced back pain in the prior 3 months.³ Stress on the spine resulting from nerve or muscle irritation or bone lesions can lead to a myriad of painful, and sometimes debilitating, symptoms.

Acute back pain, lasting days or weeks, usually results from a trauma, injury or can be due to arthritis or disc disease. Chronic back pain, defined as persistent pain lasting more than 3 months, presents with similar symptoms to acute back pain, however it can be severely limiting due to its chronic nature. Symptoms of back pain, whether it is due to sports injury, work strain, an accident, or an underlying medical condition, can range from muscle aches or tingling to shooting or stabbing pains in the back, often resulting in limited mobility or range-of-motion. Under some circumstances, people with back pain may experience radiating pain, leading to pain in limbs or other parts of the body. Back pain, the number one cause of disability globally, is diverse in nature; each patient can experience a range of severity in his or her symptoms.⁴ The American Medical Association recommends that patients experiencing back pain for a few days or weeks, or if nerve involvement is suspected, seek medical consultation to perform a medical history and physical exam so that a doctor can make appropriate recommendations for treatment.⁵

Common causes of lower back pain?

There are many causes of lower back pain. In most cases lower back pain comes from an accident or injury or a degenerative condition. Acute lower back pain can begin suddenly and is normally due to:

Awkward / Sudden Movements
Falls, Slips & Trips
Overexertion
Overreaching
Poor Lifting Technique
Poor Posture
Straining The Back

Degenerative conditions can cause lower back pain that can last for many months and years. These conditions develop over time as the tissues in your spine start to age and break down. Degenerative conditions tend to cause problems like herniated discs, osteoarthritis, and spinal stenosis.

How is lower back pain diagnosed?

To diagnose your lower back pain, our pain management and back relief specialist will perform a comprehensive physical exam to see where the pain is and how it affects your range of movement. Dr. Urban may also feel abnormalities to help him understand the cause of your lower back pain.

Dr. Urban will review your medical history and discuss your symptoms and the history of your issue in detail. We may also need to run some diagnostic tests such as an X-ray, CT scan or MRI to confirm the cause of your lower back pain.

We can help you diagnose the cause of your lower back pain so that we can create an effective treatment plan to help you get relief!

What treatments are available for lower back pain?

Back and Neck Pain Treatments
Epidural Steroid Injections
Facet Injections
Medial Branch Diagnostic Blocks and Radiofrequency Neurotomy
Provocation Discography (Discogram)
Radiofrequency Ablation (Radiofrequency Neurotomy)
Spinal cord stimulators
Selective Nerve Root Blocks
Transforaminal Steroid Injections

Contact a lower back pain specialist in Alaska for help!

At the Urban Pain Institute, our goal when treating patients with back pain is to improve function and mobility while relieving painful symptoms. Often acute back pain will resolve with conservative treatment. Our Spine Specialists will work with you and your other providers to diagnose and treat your back pain. If your pain does not respond to conservative treatments, we can employ a number of Interventional Pain techniques to help you find relief without surgery. Visit our treatments page to learn about procedures that we use in our clinic for diagnosis and treatment of back pain.

References:

¹Medline Plus. Back Pain. http://www.nlm.nih.gov/medlineplus/backpain.html. Accessed July 22, 2014

²National Institute of Neurological Disorders and Stroke. Low Back Pain Fact Sheet. http://www.ninds.nih.gov/disorders/backpain/detail_backpain.htm. Accessed July 21, 2014

³Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. Health, United States, 2012. http://www.cdc.gov/nchs/hus/contents2012.htm#047. Accessed July 21, 2014

⁴Buchbinder, R. et al. Placing the global burden of low back pain in context. Best Practice & Research Clinical Rheumatology 27, 575589 (2013).

⁵Goodman, D. M., Burke, A. E. & Livingston, E. H. JAMA patient page. Low back pain. JAMA : the journal of the American Medical Association 309, 1738 (2013).

Acute & Chronic Back Pain

Lower Back Pain Relief Specialist – Anchorage, AK

Common causes of lower back pain?

How is lower back pain diagnosed?

What treatments are available for lower back pain?

Contact a lower back pain specialist in Alaska for help!

ANCHORAGE

MAT-SU

PROVIDENCE KODIAK ISLAND MEDICAL CENTER