Lower Back Pain

What causes lower back pain?

Lower back pain is typically due to an injury of one of the structures that make up your back, or gradual degeneration of the tissues. Your spine is made up of a column of bones, which in your lower back are the lumbar vertebrae, with small facet joints providing mobility and shock-absorbing discs between each vertebra. 

There are also complex networks of muscles, ligaments, nerves, cartilage, and blood vessels supporting the vertebrae and spinal cord.

Any of these tissues or structures can sustain damage through an acute injury, or deteriorate over time, and cause lower back pain. Chronic back pain can develop from a degenerative problem, or an acute injury that doesn’t receive adequate treatment may become a chronic pain problem. Lower back pain that doesn’t spread into other parts of your body is called axial back pain.

Other conditions that may cause lower back pain include:

• Osteoporosis
• Herniated discs
• Sciatica
• Degenerative disc disease
• Spinal stenosis
• Osteoarthritis
• Other types of arthritis
• Facet arthropathy
• Piriformis syndrome

Lower back pain is likely to arise from causes such as poor posture, doing too much physically when you’re not fit, overreaching, and moving awkwardly. Lifting without using the correct technique is also a common cause of back pain. Repeating the same movements over and over can also lead to wear and tear and hasten degeneration, or failed back surgery can cause chronic lower back pain.

Could I get other symptoms with lower back pain?

Lower back pain may well be connected to nerve compression, which can cause additional symptoms such as:

• Numbness
• Tingling
• Prickling sensation
• Pins and needles
• Loss of feeling
• Loss of function

Although lower back pain is usually due to a musculoskeletal cause, sometimes it can indicate a problem with your internal organs. If you feel sick, nauseous, feverish, or have any other symptoms, like blood in your urine, you may have an infection or another internal disease.

How is back pain treated?

The right treatment for your lower back pain depends on what’s causing it, so the team at Pain Specialty Group uses their experience and expertise in combination with state-of-the-art diagnostic equipment to make an accurate diagnosis. They can then create a personalized treatment plan for you that not only eases your pain, but treats the cause as well.

Some of the treatments that might be in your plan include:

• Physical therapy
• Manipulation
• Epidural steroid injections
• Trigger point injections

For most patients, these more conservative approaches to treating lower back pain work well. However, for some patients, other techniques may be necessary, such as disc replacement.

For patients who have chronic pain that isn’t improving with other approaches, spinal cord stimulation offers an alternative solution. A spinal cord stimulator is an implantable device that the team at Pain Specialty Group places under your skin, attaching electrodes to your spinal cord. By using a handheld controller, you can adjust the device to decrease the pain signals going to your brain.

If your back pain is severe or isn’t clearing up quickly, call Pain Specialty Group to schedule a consultation, or book an appointment online today.