Diagnosing Back Pain

Back pain is very complex and this is the rationale behind the difficulty of getting accurate back pain diagnosis. 

Some diagnoses are very easy to undertake such as fractures, tumors and infections but it is a different case for back pain diagnosis.

It is very critical to have an accurate back pain diagnosis since this is required for determining effective treatment approaches.  The sooner that a diagnosis for back pain is made, the sooner it can be treated for rehabilitation and for pain relief.
The following will give helpful information about numerous common issues patients encounter when getting a diagnosis for back pain or neck pain.
There are a lot of terms that illustrate spinal disorders and different doctors use terms differently for their diagnosis for back pain.  For example, the spinal disc abnormality can also be called a herniated disc, pinched nerve, bulging disc, protruding disc, slipped disc, or prolapsed disc.  There is no precise definition for this particular term.  Patients who want to diagnose for back pain will hear different terms.  Also, conventional medical terms can be misleading for patients who are looking for a diagnosis for back pain..

Patients looking for diagnosis for back pain should focus more on understanding mechanisms behind the diagnosis of the back pain instead of unduly focusing on the MRI or other test conducted to examine spinal anatomy.  Medical jargon such as “herniated disc” are used to pertain to or depict radiographic findings seen on a CT or MRI scan; however these tests cannot establish the actual cause of back pain.

Anatomical lesions are used to confirm diagnosis for back pain.  Such diagnoses for back pain are useful to determine the source and extent of the lesion. A case of this is a herniated disc. The diagnoses determine the proper treatment for the back pain.  the most common diagnostic test includes X-ray (to provide detail bone structures in the spine and to check for instability, tumors, cancers and fractures), MRI scans (provides detail of the discs and nerve roots), and CT scans (very detailed x-ray).

There are also other imaging and electrical studies that are used for diagnosis of back pain.  There are also injections used for diagnosis for back pain as well as the reduction of pain. On the matter of diagnosis for back pain and treating back pain, physicians agree little on this matter.  For example, a disco gram is very controversial.  This is a technique which uses injection to ascertain if a particular disc is generating pain.