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Low Back Pain, a Comprehensive Review: Pathophysiology, Diagnosis, and Treatment

  • Other Pain (A. Kaye and N. Vadivelu, Section Editors)
  • Published:
Current Pain and Headache Reports Aims and scope Submit manuscript

Abstract

Purpose of Review

Low back pain encompasses three distinct sources: axial lumbosacral, radicular, and referred pain. Annually, the prevalence of low back pain in the general US adult population is 10–30%, and the lifetime prevalence of US adults is as high as 65–80%.

Recent Findings

Patient history, physical exam, and diagnostic testing are important components to accurate diagnosis and identification of patient pathophysiology. Etiologies of low back pain include myofascial pain, facet joint pain, sacroiliac joint pain, discogenic pain, spinal stenosis, and failed back surgery. In chronic back pain patients, a multidisciplinary, logical approach to treatment is most effective and can include multimodal medical, psychological, physical, and interventional approaches.

Summary

Low back pain is a difficult condition to effectively treat and continues to affect millions of Americans every year. In the current investigation, we present a comprehensive review of low back pain and discuss associated pathophysiology, diagnosis, and treatment.

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Author information

Authors and Affiliations

  1. Department of Anesthesia, Critical Care, and Pain Medicine, Beth Israel Deaconess Medical Center, Harvard Medical School, 330 Brookline Ave, Boston, MA, 02215, USA

    Ivan Urits, Medha Sharma, Lauren Testa, Vwaire Orhurhu & Mark R. Jones

  2. Department of Orthopedic Surgery, Hofstra-Northwell Health System, Great Neck, NY, 11021, USA

    Aaron Burshtein & Peter A. Gold

  3. Valley Anesthesiology and Pain Consultants, Phoenix, AZ, USA

    Omar Viswanath

  4. Department of Anesthesiology, University of Arizona College of Medicine-Phoenix, Phoenix, AZ, USA

    Omar Viswanath

  5. Department of Anesthesiology, Creighton University School of Medicine, Omaha, NE, USA

    Omar Viswanath

  6. Department of Anesthesiology, University of Arizona College of Medicine-Phoenix, Tyler, TX, USA

    Moises A. Sidransky

  7. Department of Anesthesiology, Emory School of Medicine, Atlanta, GA, 30308, USA

    Boris Spektor

  8. Department of Anesthesiology, Louisiana State University Health Science Center, New Orleans, LA, 70112, USA

    Alan D. Kaye

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  1. Ivan Urits
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Correspondence to Ivan Urits.

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Conflict of Interest

Ivan Urits, Aaron Burshtein, Medha Sharma, Lauren Testa, Peter A. Gold, Vwaire Orhurhu, Omar Viswanath, Mark R. Jones, Moises A. Sidransky, and Boris Spektor declare no conflict of interest. Dr. Kaye is a speaker for Depomed, Inc. and Merck, Inc.

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Urits, I., Burshtein, A., Sharma, M. et al. Low Back Pain, a Comprehensive Review: Pathophysiology, Diagnosis, and Treatment. Curr Pain Headache Rep 23, 23 (2019). https://doi.org/10.1007/s11916-019-0757-1

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