‘Majority of back pain cases don’t need a specialist’

Hyderabad: Back pain is an extremely common problem. It is estimated by some studies that up to 58 per cent of the population at any point suffer with back ache. More common in women, back pain starts to become problem for people in the 30’s and the incidence gradually increases linearly till the 60’s.

During the 270th monthly Health lecture on Back Pain by Dr Amitav Ray Senior Consultant Neuro Surgeon stated that studied from the UK have shown that 100 million man-days are lost because of this. It is one of the highest causes of disability claims in the West and the 2010 Global Disease burden study identified back pain as among the top ten diseases world-wide.

The exact cause of back pain is often undetected. It is related to increasing urbanization in India. Sedentary lifestyles, poor posture and obesity have been most widely associated with disease. Stress, depression and decreased exposure to sunlight have also been linked to the disease.

Dr Amitav Ray said that majority of back pain never need to see a specialist. When combined with analgesics, the pain should subside within a few days. Physiotherapy can also help. However, the main aim here is to prevent it from happening again. For this, exercise specifically to strengthen the back muscles and more generally a healthy and active life style is required.

Coping strategies for stress, getting professional help for depression may also be useful in some cases. If backpain is associated with any of the symptoms listed above, specialist help must be sought immediately and the patient must be thoroughly evaluated. Modern medicine can manage most conditions appropriately. Spinal surgery today, done by trained specialists using modern imaging, monitoring and microscopic techniques are safe and provide almost instant relief for
patients.