Hard To Figure Out, Easy To Treat
When not associated with deformities, a medical history, or trauma, back pain is difficult -and sometimes impossible- to trace. It is perhaps one of the most common medical enigmas, and we still have it around despite modern medical advances. What’s more, the majority of diagnostic imaging tests trying to figure out the cause can make it even more confusing.
You can have a patient with chronic back pain for many years, but their MRIs are completely normal. On the contrary, people with severe alterations that normally cause back pain may display no symptoms at all.
A typical case is a 55-year-old patient presenting with back pain. On a CT scan, they get minor disc abnormalities and some degenerated vertebrae. Are they bad enough to be blamed? Is there anything else we are missing? Is it worth it to go through surgical procedures? Sometimes the answer is “we are not sure,” but in most cases, it will be pretty easy to handle, regardless of the cause.
Pinpointing the cause is usually not paramount to getting effective treatment. With the right therapy or combination of therapies, it is possible to alleviate back pain even if we don’t have a definitive diagnosis.