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 67
year old female presents to the office with chief
complaint of "I can not sit down" Patient states as soon
as she sits down within minutes she gets a horrible back
pain and buttocks pain forcing her to stand up and walk
around. "But I can not be standing all the time" patient
says.
Her past medical
history is remarkable for Back surgery, she has tried
Epidurals, Radio-frequency, Acupuncture. She has to take
a sleeping pill and antidepressant.
She describes her
discomfort to be there all the time and everyday (she
goes to sleep with it and wakes up with it). On the
scale of 0-100 (0 being the least painful and 100 being
the most painful) she describes her pain to run between
50-90 depending on her good and bad days.
Discussion:
Low back pain usually results from degenerative disease
or arthritis of the lumbosacral spine (medical lingo:
lower spine) is a big problem in our nation, and it is a
common cause of morbidity, disability and lost
productivity. It is guesstimated that up to 90 percent
of the Americans may have low back pain at some point of
their life. Data from In 1984, suggests that over 5
million people were incapacitated because of lower back
pain.
This means a big
financial disturbance as far as "health care dollars" is
involved and because of back pain many people may go on
disability and not work which costs the system billions
of dollars each year in our country. With people living
longer and our baby boomer (people who were born between
1944-1964) approaching their retirement , the problem of
back pain remains a significant health care issue.
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