Abstract
In the first part of this chapter the public health importance of low back pain was emphasized. The complexity of the socioeconomic issues were reviewed that make low back pain the important problem that it is. Patient behavior and physician behavior was emphasized. As a second part of the examination of the problem, low back pain with and without a leg radiation will be emphasized simply as a manifestation of underlying disease. These data are drawn from two sources. The first source is 1048 patients referred for evaluation of intractable back pain with and without operation.1 A typical patient had undergone at least three operations and was fully studied with repetitive imaging studies. For instance, the average number of myelograms was nine. Nevertheless, approximately one-third of these patients had never undergone surgery. The second group is comprised of nearly 4000 patients studied in a multicenter nationwide evaluation.2 Eighty percent of these patients had not had a previous operation. These remarks then are drawn from a broad data base of more than 5000 patients in whom detailed demographic, historical, psychological, physical, and imaging data are available.
This is a preview of subscription content, log in via an institution to check access.
Access this chapter
Tax calculation will be finalised at checkout
Purchases are for personal use only
Preview
Unable to display preview. Download preview PDF.
References
Long DM. Acute and chronic pain. In: Davis JH, Drucker WR, Foster RS, et al, eds. Clinical Surgery. St. Louis: C.V. Mosby; 1987;1:509–534.
Long D, Boyd R, Sypert G, et al, eds. The National Low Back Pain Study: A prospective examination of the treatment of low back pain and sciatica. Presented at the 60th Annual Meeting of the American Association of Neurological Surgeons; April 11–16, 1992; San Francisco, Calif.
Long DM. Failed back surgery syndrome. Neurosurg Clin N Am 1991;2:899–919.
Long DM. A review of psychological considerations in the neurosurgical management of chronic pain: a neurosurgeon’s perspective. Neurosurg Q. 1991; 1:185–195.
Long DM. Chronic adhesive spinal arachnoiditis: pathogenesis, prognosis, and treatment. Neurosurg Q. 1992;2:296–319.
Long DM. Surgical decision-making in the chronic back syndrome. In: Hardy RW, Jr, ed. Lumbar Disc Disease,2nd ed. New York: Raven Press; 1993:285–291.
Long D. Outcome of therapy for low back pain. In: Chronic pain management: developing a treatment system for people with disabilities. Report of a Research Planning Workshop. NH Publication No. 943720; 1994:38–39.
Long DM. Rehabilitation of the patient with persistent pain. In: Illis LS, ed. Neurological Rehabilitation, 2nd ed. Oxford. UK: Blackwell Scientific Publishers; 1994:394–408.
Long DM, Zeidman SM. Outcome of low back pain therapy. In: Hadley MN, ed. Perspectives in Neurological Surgery. St. Louis: Quality Medical Publishing; 1994;5(1):41–51.
Editor information
Editors and Affiliations
Rights and permissions
Copyright information
© 1997 Springer Science+Business Media New York
About this chapter
Cite this chapter
Long, D.M. (1997). Low Back Pain. In: North, R.B., Levy, R.M. (eds) Neurosurgical Management of Pain. Springer, New York, NY. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-1-4612-1938-5_5
Download citation
DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/978-1-4612-1938-5_5
Publisher Name: Springer, New York, NY
Print ISBN: 978-1-4612-7348-6
Online ISBN: 978-1-4612-1938-5
eBook Packages: Springer Book Archive