Low Back Pain Diagnosis
Getting a proper diagnosis which identifies the underlying cause of the pain in the back is very crucial in providing a proper treatment to the patient. The proper diagnosis must accurately reveal the correlation of symptoms with the underlying cause of the pain. To create a solid foundation, a detailed description of medical history and symptoms from the patient is the requirement. Detailed information about the patient’s medical history will give the doctor a general idea about the main source of the pain in the patient. Following are some factors which require detailed information by the medical professional to rule out the actual cause of back pain:
Patient’s medical history
Activity level
Information about recent symptoms
Posture
Injuries
Sleeping habits
Diagnostic tests:
Physical examination
The main purpose of doing the complete physical examination is to narrow down the underlying causes which might be resulting in the back pain. The physical examination for low back typically involves the combination of two or tests like range of motion test, reflex test and leg raise test.