Kingsbridge Private Hospital is here to help when your lifestyle is compromised by chronic spinal pain.
Back Pain
Low back pain is pain, or stiffness in the lower back with or without leg pain (sciatica). Left untreated, this can be debilitating and can have a significant impact on your quality of life, causing frustration and even depression.
When simple treatments fail to relieve your back pain, seeing a pain specialist is vital.
Back Pain is extremely common and usually self-limiting.
About 80% of people experience low back pain at some stage of their life. In the vast majority of cases, this is a self-limiting condition and not due to any serious cause. In this situation, the condition is known as non-specific or mechanical low back pain. Sixty percent of patients with acute low back pain recover in 6 weeks and up to 80% to 90% recover within 12 weeks. If the pain persists for greater than 3 months, it is considered chronic back pain.
Do I Need a Scan for my Back Pain?
For the majority of cases of low back pain, a scan is not necessary. There are certain ‘red flags’ indicators in your medical history which your pain specialist will ask about. If you fulfil several of these ‘red flags’ your specialist will organise a scan.
Red Flag Back Pain Indicators include:
- Previous history malignancy
- Aged under 16 or over 50 with new onset pain
- Unexplained weight loss
- Longstanding steroid use
- Saddle anaesthesia
- Reduced anal tone
- Generalised neurological deficit
- Progressive spinal deformity
- Urinary retention
- Non-mechanical pain (Night pain, pain at rest)
- Thoracic pain
- Fever/ rigors
- General malaise
As part of the initial assessment, your specialist will consider your ‘red flags’ and make a judgement as to whether a scan is necessary. If a number of red flags are present and your specialists considers a scan is necessary, this may lead to a referral to a spinal surgeon for an opinion. This happens only on a very small minority of cases.
Do I need surgery for my back pain?
Approximately 98 percent of back pain patients are diagnosed with non-specific acute back pain in which no serious underlying pathology is identified. Therefore, for the vast majority of cases of back pain, surgery is not indicated nor required. The latest guidelines state that surgery should not be considered for mechanical (non-specific) low back pain.
What treatments are offered for back pain?
Initial treatments offered include medical management and access to physiotherapy.
Other more interventional treatments for low back pain, including sciatica, include:
- Radiofrequency denervation techniques
- Sacroiliac joint injections
- Caudal injections
- Lumbar epidural injections
- Nerve root blocks
- Trigger point injections
Do Pain Specialists treat any other conditions?
Pain specialists treat a wide range of chronic pain conditions including:
- Headaches
- Chronic Facial Pain
- Trigeminal Neuralgia
- Migraine (Including Botox Injections)
- Neck Pain
- Whiplash Injury
- Post Herpetic Neuralgia (Shingles pain)
- Fibromyalgia
- Adhesive Capsulitis (Frozen Shoulder)
- Post Hernia Surgery Pain
- Back Pain
- Chronic Abdominal Wall Pain
- Coccyx Pain
- Diabetic Peripheral Neuropathis Pain (DPNP)
- Sciatica
- Trochanteric Bursitis
- Sacroiliac Joint Pain
- Knee Pain
- Myofascial Pain
- Neuropathis Pain
- Plantar Fasciitis
- Post Surgical Pain
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