FAQs

Back pain is an extremely common problem, next only to headaches. Approximately 80% of adults in the UK will experience back pain at some point in their lives. This makes it one of the most common reasons for visits to general practitioners.

Around 20% of people who experience back pain go on to develop chronic back pain, which persists for 12 weeks or more. Chronic back pain can significantly impact daily activities and quality of life.

Back pain is one of the leading causes of long-term sickness absence from work.

There are multiple reasons for back pain. Most common is Mechanical back pain, also known as axial back pain, is the most common type of back pain. It refers to pain primarily caused by the spine, intervertebral discs, or surrounding muscles and ligaments. This type of pain is usually localized to the lower back and does not radiate to other parts of the body.

Most of the time they settle down with simple treatment like pain killers and physiotherapy. Only a small proportion develop continuous pain which will need further treatment.

When there is compression of the nerves which are around the bones, it causes pain down the legs. It may also cause numbness, weakness, pins and needles.

Most of the time it is because of wear and tear (degenerative)

Other causes can be injury (trauma) infection, cancer. However these are relatively rare.

The following questions can help:

Have you had any injury? Have you had any infections in your body recently? Have you had any fever? Have you lost weight recently? Have you had any cancer in the past or have a diagnosis of cancer currently?

If your answer is yes and your back pain started around the same time of the above then you should seek medical attention.

If you don’t have any of the above, then it is likely a degenerative cause. If your symptoms have persisted for more than 6 weeks and not have improved with pain killers or physiotherapy then it maybe appropriate to seek further help.

Wear and tear is part of ageing. Changes in the spine suggestive of wear tear can be seen as young as people in their 30s. In fact when MRI scans were done in people without back pain, some degree of changes were seen in 30%

I will gather information about your pain and how it is affecting you. I will also need to know your medical history. I will perform a thorough examination checking your spine and examining your arms and legs. This assists me understanding where and what the problem could be. I will arrange scan of your spine.

An MRI (Magnetic Resonance Imaging) scan is a medical test that uses powerful magnets and radio waves to take detailed pictures of the inside of your body.

An MRI scan is used for the spine to provide detailed images of the spinal cord, vertebrae, discs, and surrounding tissues.

I will review your scan to determine if there are any abnormalities that might explain your symptoms. It's important to understand that scans often show changes that may not be related to your symptoms.

For example, Up to 30% of adults in their 30s with no back pain have herniated discs on MRI.

We will discuss options of treatment appropriate to your symptoms and the scan findings. The options can be:

• Painkillers
• Physiotherapy
• Spinal injection
• Surgery

You can write down the symptoms you suffer from. You can also make a note of any questions you have to ask me during the consultation.