Detailed guides to painful problems, treatments & more
Closeup photo of a dog barking fiercely, representing the scary “bark” of low back pain.

When to Worry About Low Back Pain

And when not to! What’s bark and what’s bite? Checklists and red flags for the scary causes of back pain

Paul Ingraham • 25m read

The bark of low back pain is usually much worse than its bite. The pain almost always makes it seem worse than it is. Even when it’s unusually severe and/or constant, it probably isn’t dangerous.

MRI and x-ray for low back pain are surprisingly unreliable,1 because things like bulging discs usually aren’t a big deal,2 most back pain goes away on its own,3 and trigger points (“muscle knots”) are common and can be worrisomely intense but aren’t dangerous.4 Indeed, nearly every scary thing people think they know about how back works is either exaggerated or a full-blown myth.5

Most patients are much better off when they feel confident about these things.

The power of justified, rational confidence is a huge factor in back pain.6 Sadly, many healthcare professionals continue to perpetuate the idea of fragile backs,7 which undermines that valuable confidence.

Or you could be dying! What are the odds that back pain is something scary?

Of course there are cases of low back pain that have alarming causes, but it’s reassuringly rare. Once in a while back pain is a warning sign of cancer, autoimmune disease, infection, or a handful of other scary culprits.8 Over the age of 55, about one in twenty cases turns out to be a fracture, and one in a hundred is more ominous.9 The further you are from 55, the better your odds.

But how can you tell? It can be tricky. This is a concise, readable guide to symptoms that need better-safe-than-sorry investigation with your doctor. (It’s basically just a plain English version of clinical guidelines for doctors.10) In other words, this article explains the difference between “dangerous” and “just painful” as clearly as possible. Tables, checklists, and examples ahead.

Chronic low back pain is serious … but rarely ominous

Back pain can suck the joy out of your days for week, months, even years. It can definitely be “serious” even when it’s not dangerous. I have worked with many truly miserable chronic low back pain patients, and of course the huge economic costs of back pain are cited practically anywhere the subject comes up. But your typical case of chronic low back pain, as nasty as it can be, has never killed anyone.

“Ominous” is medical jargon for “truly scary.” Cue Jaws theme music. Low back pain is ominous when it is caused by something that can cripple or kill you. Such causes are rare, fortunately. But awful things do happen, even the best doctors can miss them (and “alternative” health care professionals are even more likely to).

Drawing of a knob representing the intensity of back pain, dialed up to 11.

Ordinary back pain can be fierce & awful … but not dangerous. It’s bark is almost always much louder than its bite.

All of the worst possible causes of back pain and their major features

None of these are common. All of them usually cause serious symptoms that are easy to take seriously. Some of them can “fly under the radar” in early stages, but usually not for long. The names of the conditions link to carefully chosen articles from good sources.

The worst possible causes of back pain
what is it? major features
cancer a tumor in or near the spine Many kinds of cancer can cause many kinds of back pain, but some strong themes are: the pain grows steadily and is mostly unaffected by position and activity, worse with weight bearing and at night, and comes with other signs of being unwell.
cauda equina syndrome pinching of the lowest part of the spinal cord Hard to mistake for anything else: hard to pee, fecal incontinence, numb groin, weak legs. Caused by ruptured discs, trauma, cancer, infection.
spinal infection infection in or near spinal structures Hard to detect, often for a long time. Usually there’s a well-defined tender spot and then, eventually, deep constant pain, a rigid spine, sometimes fever and illness but not always.
abdominal aneurysm ballooning of a large artery next to the spine Pain may throb in sync with pulse. Mostly occcurs in people at risk of heart disease: older, heavier, hypertensive smokers and diabetes patients.
ankylosing spondylitis inflammatory arthritis of spine and pelvis, mostly Long term back pain starting well before middle age and progressing slowly and erratically, improves with activity but not rest, prolonged morning stiffness, possible involvement of other areas. More common in men.

The worst back pain is rarely the scariest

People understandably assume that the worst back pain is the scariest. In fact, pain intensity is a poor indicator of back pain ominousness,11 and some of the worst causes are actually the least painful (especially in the early stages). For instance, someone could experience the symptoms of cauda equinae syndrome, and be in real danger of a serious and permanent injury to their spine, but have surprisingly little pain — even none at all in some cases!

Meanwhile, many non-dangerous problems can cause amazingly severe back pain. A muscle cramp is a good analogy — just think about how painful a Charley horse is! Regardless of what’s actually going on in there, muscle pain is probably the main thing that back pain patients are feeling. The phenomenon of trigger points — tiny muscle cramps, basically12 — could be the entire problem, or a complication that’s more painful and persistent than the original problem. It’s hard to overstate how painful trigger points can be, but they are not dangerous to anything but your comfort.

Two back pain situations you should take seriously right away, no delay

These two back pain scenarios might be medical emergencies. They definitely do not necessarily mean something horrible is wrong, but it’s important to make sure.

  1. Pain and weakness in both legs, especially if it’s also hard to pee. More about this below.
  2. Any accident with forces that may have been sufficient to fracture your spine. Please seek thorough medical assessment promptly, including an X-ray to look for a fracture. You really do need an X-ray to ensure that your spine is not actually broken. They aren’t necessarily as obvious as you’d think!13
Picture of a man holding his painful back.

Isn’t it rather obvious that a potential spinal fracture is an emergency?

You’d think so. But consider this story of a motorcycle accident: many years ago, a friend hit a car that had pulled out from a side street. He flew over the car & landed on his head. Bystanders showed their ignorance of spinal fracture by, yikes, carelessly moving him. In fact, his thoracic spine was significantly fractured … yet the hospital actually refused to do an X-ray because he had no obvious symptoms of a spinal fracture. Incredible! The next day, a horrified orthopedic surgeon ordered an X-ray immediately, confirming the fracture & quite possibly saved him from paralysis.

Pain + weakness in both legs as symptoms of cauda equina syndrome… or not

Pain in both legs, especially combined with weakness, is the closest thing we have to a reliable red flag for cauda equina syndrome (CES): trouble with the lowest parts of the spinal cord.14 Fortunately, CES is rare. Not crazy rare, but rare — most doctors will probably see a few cases in their careers.15

A not-so-reliable red flag is the main traditional one: numbness in the groin, buttock, and inner thighs — a “saddle” pattern.16 This is a CES symptom, but modern data shows that saddle numbness is just about as common in people without CES! In fact, all CES symptoms are like this to some degree: they all occur in lots of people who have no detectable compression (with MRI). Every last one of them.

The only symptoms that are distinctly more likely with CES are pain and weakness in both legs, as well as difficulty starting to pee,17 and the combination of all three is a particularly strong sign. But even those symptoms often occur without any detectable compression.

That said, obviously you should be checked out if you are experiencing true saddle numbness.18 Even if it’s not CES, any significant malfunction of your plumbing should be taken seriously.

But don’t panic! It’s amazing how weird and bad bodies can feel without anything being too terribly wrong. Many cases with CES-ish symptoms, if not most, turn out to be false alarms.19

The Big Three signs that you should investigate for an ominous cause of persistent low back pain (but it’s not an emergency)

You shouldn’t worry about low back pain until three conditions have been met:

  1. it’s been bothering you for more than about 6 weeks20
  2. it’s severe and/or not improving, or actually getting worse
  3. there is at least one other “red flag” (see more list items below)

The presence of the big three does not confirm that something horrible is going on. It only means that you need to check carefully.

The story of actor Andy Whitfield is a disturbing and educational example of a case that met these conditions — for sure the first two, and probably the third as well if we knew the details. Whitfield was the star of the hit TV show Spartacus (which is worthwhile, but rated very, very R21). The first sign of the cancer that killed him in 2011 was steadily worsening back pain. It’s always hard to diagnose a cancer that starts this way, but Whitfield was in the middle of intense physical training to look the part of history’s most famous gladiator. Back pain didn’t seem unusual at first, and some other symptoms may have been obscured. Weight loss could have even seemed like a training victory at first! It was many long months before he was diagnosed — not until the back pain was severe and constant. A scan finally revealed a large tumour pressing against his spine.

Don’t confuse threat and risk. Working at the edge is a risk. But then again, so is walking out your front door.

Cory Blickenstaff, PT

Is back pain a symptom of COVID-19? (Or other common infections?)

All common aches and pains are more likely to be triggered or aggravated by any infection, but perhaps COVID-19 more than most — simply because it’s unusually good at causing widespread body aching, and backs are included in that. But back pain doesn’t stand out any more than any other common locations for aching or soreness (with the exception of headache, which stands out in 8–14% of cases.2223).

Infamously, meningitis causes severe neck pain and stiffness. COVID-19 is not causing severe pain in a specific body part like that. But all infections lower our pain thresholds.24 If you were already at risk of a flare-up of back pain, it could emerge during any infection, exposed like a rock that is only visible at low tide. Some COVID patients have worse back pain than others, but it’s likely that says more about their vulnerability to back pain than it does about COVID-19. In other words, influenza might cause the same flare-up of back pain.

All the red flags for ominous causes of back pain

“Red flags” are signs or symptoms that something medically ominous may be going on. Red flags are not reliable: their presence is not a diagnosis, and their absence does not rule anything out.25 But when you have some red flags, it is a good better-safe-than-sorry reason to look more closely. Sometimes red flags are missing even when there really is something serious going on … and sometimes they are a false alarm.26 Check off all that apply … hopefully none or few or only the least alarming of them!

Some of these red flags are much less red than others, especially depending on the circumstances. For instance, “weight loss” is common and often the sign of successful diet! (Well, at least temporarily successful, anyway. 😃) Obviously, if you know of a harmless reason why you have a red flag symptom, it isn’t really a red flag (duh!). But every single actual red flag — in combination with severe low back pain that’s been going on for several weeks — is definitely a good reason to get yourself checked out.

Most people who check off an item or two will turn out not to have an ominous cause for their low back pain. But why not check?

The tricky one:
Cancer as a cause of low back pain, and the necessity of testing “just in case” when the symptoms justify it

Sorry I have to use the C word — I know it’s kind of a bummer. But C happens.

A few cancers in their early stages can be hard to tell apart from ordinary back pain — a bone cancer in the vertebrae, for instance — and these create a frustrating diagnostic problem. They are too rare for doctors to inflict cancer testing on every low back pain patient “just in case.” And yet the possibility cannot be dismissed, either! This is an unsolveable problem.

Most cancers and ominous problems will inevitably start to cause other, distinctive, ominous symptoms, and it won’t be long before someone catches on that there’s more going on than just back pain. So it truly is an extraordinary circumstance for back pain to be ominous without causing other symptoms that raise the alarm.

For example, in 2017, the New England Journal of Medicine reported on a creepy case of slowly growing neurological deficit caused by a very stealthy cancer, which took a lot of diagnostic effort to solve.27 •shudder• So sneaky cancers happen… but they are crazy rare.

Meanwhile, it’s extremely common for non-life-threatening low back pain to be alarmingly severe and persistent — to have a loud bark! Your doctor may not appreciate how true this is, and may over-react to all persistent low back pain, even without other red flags. In most cases, you shouldn’t let them scare you. Being “freaked out” about persistent back pain is the real threat: it can make low back pain much worse, and much more likely to last even longer (a tragic irony).

This is an unholy combination of factors: the exact same symptoms can have either an extremely rare but serious cause, or an extremely common but “harmless” cause that can be greatly aggravated by excessive alarm!

The good news is that it’s easy enough to diagnose cancer if you look for it, so the answer to the dilemma is to simply do the testing when the time is right, but not before. There’s every reason to screen for cancer when the conditions merit it — that is, when the red flags appear in combination with persistent, severe pain.

“I told you I was sick!”

one of the all-time great epitaphs 🪦

Is lower right or left back pain worrisome?

Pain on one side of the back is not particularly more worrisome than central pain. There are three main kinds of one-sided back pain:

  1. Back pain that could occur on either side, but just happens to be on the right or the left exclusively. This is very common. Most ordinary back pain dominates one side of the back.
  2. Back pain that comes specifically from structures that exist only on one side. This is a small category.

Most of the anatomy of the low back and abdomen is symmetrical. Some of the guts are not symmetrical, and only some of those is a plausible cause of back pain on one side. Here’s some of the key anatomy to consider:

The side of the pain on its own doesn’t tell us much, and most of the one-sided sources of pain are viscera that usually cause abdominal pain instead of back pain, or in addition to it. In other words, the only reason to worry about right or left lower back pain is if it is otherwise worrisome: if you have other red flags or significant non-back symptoms.

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About Paul Ingraham

Headshot of Paul Ingraham, short hair, neat beard, suit jacket.

I am a science writer in Vancouver, Canada. I was a Registered Massage Therapist for a decade and the assistant editor of ScienceBasedMedicine.org for several years. I’ve had many injuries as a runner and ultimate player, and I’ve been a chronic pain patient myself since 2015. Full bio. See you on Facebook or Twitter., or subscribe:

Other reading on PainScience.com about back pain

And the big one…

What’s new in this article?

Fifteen updates have been logged for this article since publication (2009). All PainScience.com updates are logged to show a long term commitment to quality, accuracy, and currency. more When’s the last time you read a blog post and found a list of many changes made to that page since publication? Like good footnotes, this sets PainScience.com apart from other health websites and blogs. Although footnotes are more useful, the update logs are important. They are “fine print,” but more meaningful than most of the comments that most Internet pages waste pixels on.

I log any change to articles that might be of interest to a keen reader. Complete update logging of all noteworthy improvements to all articles started in 2016. Prior to that, I only logged major updates for the most popular and controversial articles.

See the What’s New? page for updates to all recent site updates.

2022 — Added an important citation to O’Sullivan about back pain myths to the introduction.

2021 — Minor science update, added information and data about the rarity of cauda equina syndrome.

2020 — Minor science update, added a citation to a cancer case study.

2020 — Added information about back pain as a symptom of COVID-19.

2018 — Cited Premkumar et al on red flag reliability (which ain’t great).

2017 — Added a mobile-only article summary.

2017 — Substantially beefed up and modernized the introduction footnotes.

2016 — Added a bunch of further reading suggestions.

2016 — Added a substantial new section about left and right low back pain.

2016 — More editing, more! Added some better information about pain being a poor indicator, and the role of myofascial trigger points. This article has become extremely busy in the last couple months — about 4,000 readers per day, as described here — so I am really polishing it and making sure that it’s the best possible answer to people’s fears about back pain.

2016 — Added table of worst possible causes of back pain. Miscellaneous editing and organizing.

2013 — More editing and minor improvements. Added the barking dog image. Made the article more “shareable,” with new metadata for social media sites.

2013 — Edits and miscellaneous minor improvements. Added one red flag.

2011 — Added some clarification about the position of symptoms of cauda equina syndrome, and a personal footnote related to that scary scenario.

2009 — Added important and reassuring information about the chronicity of low back pain. See “Prognosis for patients with chronic low back pain: inception cohort study”.

2009 — Publication.

Notes

  1. Herzog R, Elgort DR, Flanders AE, Moley PJ. Variability in diagnostic error rates of 10 MRI centers performing lumbar spine MRI examinations on the same patient within a 3-week period. Spine J. 2016 Nov. PubMed 27867079 ❐

    In this study, one patient with sciatica was sent for ten MRIs, which produced 49 distinct “findings,” 16 of them unique, none of which occurred in all ten reports. On average, each radiologist made about a dozen errors, seeing one or two things that weren’t there and missing about ten things that were. Yikes. Read a more detailed and informal description of this study.

    (See more detailed commentary on this paper.)

  2. People routinely have no pain despite the presence of obvious arthritic degeneration, herniated discs, and other seemingly serious structural problems like stenosis and spondylolistheses. This surprising contradiction has been made clear by a wide variety of research over the years, but the most notable in recent history is Brinjikji 2015. There are painful spinal problems, of course — which was also shown by Brinjikji et al in a companion paper — but they are mostly more rare and unpredictable than most people suspect, and there are many fascinating examples of people who “should” be in pain but are not, and vice versa. Spinal problems are only one of many ingredients in back pain.
  3. Costa LCM, Maher CG, McAuley JH, et al. Prognosis for patients with chronic low back pain: inception cohort study. BMJ. 2009 Oct;339:b3829. PubMed 19808766 ❐ PainSci Bibliography 55422 ❐

    This Australian study concluded that “prognosis is moderately optimistic for patients with chronic low back pain,” contradicting the common fear that any low back pain that lasts longer than 6-9 weeks will become a long-term chronic problem. This evidence was the first of its kind as of 2009, a rarity in low back pain research, a field where almost everything has been studied to death. “Many studies provide good evidence for the prognosis of acute low back pain,” the authors explain. “Relatively few provide good evidence for the prognosis of chronic low back pain.”

    Their research differs from past studies of chronic low back pain, which tended to focus on patients who already had a well-established track record of long-term problems (in other words, the people who had already drawn the short straw before they were selected for study, and are likely to carry right on feeling rotten). Instead they studied new cases of chronic low back pain, and found that “more than one third” recovered within nine more months. This evidence is a good foundation for more substantive and lasting reassurance for low back pain patients.

  4. Back “spasms” are a largely a myth — there’s no such thing a sustained painful contractions of muscles in otherwise healthy people (see Cramps, Spasms, Tremors & Twitches) — but the kernel of truth in the idea of “spasms” may be the idea of trigger points, which are hypothetical “micro cramps,” tiny patches of painfully contracting muscle. Although this idea is controversial, it is nevertheless one of the most likely explanations for common aches and pains that mostly stick to one area (especially the back) and have no other obvious cause. See Back Pain & Trigger Points.
  5. O’Sullivan PB, Caneiro JP, O’Sullivan K, et al. Back to basics: 10 facts every person should know about back pain. Br J Sports Med. 2019 Dec. PubMed 31892534 ❐

    A highly credible and readable explanation of back pain myths. Lead author Peter O’Sullivan shared the myths and a nice featured infographic in a tweet. Here are the “unhelpful” low back pain beliefs, “culturally endorsed and not supported by evidence,” identified by the authors:

    1. FALSE: Low back pain is usually a serious medical condition.
    2. FALSE: Low back pain will become persistent and deteriorate in later life.
    3. FALSE: Persistent low back pain is always related to tissue damage.
    4. FALSE: Scans are always needed to detect the cause of low back pain.
    5. FALSE: Pain related to exercise and movement is always a warning that harm is being done to the spine and a signal to stop or modify activity.
    6. FALSE: Low back pain is caused by weak “core” muscles and having a strong core protects against future Low back pain.
    7. FALSE: Repeated spinal loading results in “wear and tear” and tissue damage.
    8. FALSE: Pain flare-ups are a sign of tissue damage and require rest.
    9. FALSE: Treatments such as strong medications, injections and surgery are effective, and necessary, to treat Low back pain.
  6. Vibe-Fersum K, O’Sullivan P, Skouen JS, Smith A, Kvåle A. Efficacy of classification-based cognitive functional therapy in patients with non-specific chronic low back pain: A randomized controlled trial. Eur J Pain. 2013 Jul;17(6):916–28. PubMed 23208945 ❐

    The big idea of classification-based cognitive functional therapy (CB-CFT or just CFT) is that most back pain has nothing to do with scary spinal problems and so the cycle of pain and disability can be broken by easing patient fears and anxieties. For this study, CFT was tried with 62 patients and compared to 59 who were treated with manual therapy and exercise. The CFT group did better: a 13-point boost on a 100-point disability scale, and 3 points on a 10-point pain scale. As the authors put it for BodyInMind.org, “Disabling back pain can change for the better with a different narrative and coping strategies.” These results aren’t proof that the confidence cure works, but they are genuinely promising.

    (See more detailed commentary on this paper.)

    See also The Mind Game in Low Back Pain.
  7. Zusman M. Belief reinforcement: one reason why costs for low back pain have not decreased. J Multidiscip Healthc. 2013;6:197–204. PubMed 23717046 ❐ PainSci Bibliography 54554 ❐

    Why is back pain still a huge problem? Maybe this: “It is extremely difficult to alter the potentially disabling belief among the lay public that low back pain has a structural mechanical cause. An important reason for this is that this belief continues to be regularly reinforced by the conditions of care of a range of ‘hands-on’ providers, for whom idiosyncratic variations of that view are fundamental to their professional existence.”

    Well said. If only I could edit it, though, I would say that it is difficult to alter that belief in anyone, patient or professional. The belief isn’t just reinforced by the practices of manual therapists, it’s the reason for them.

  8. The complete list, from Low Back Pain: Clinical Practice Guidelines:
    In the vast majority of patients with low back pain, symptoms can be attributed to nonspecific mechanical factors. However, in a much smaller percentage of patients, the cause of back pain may be something more serious, such as cancer, cauda equina syndrome, spinal infection, spinal compression fractures, spinal stress fractures, ankylosing spondylitis, or aneurysm.
  9. Enthoven WTM, Geuze J, Scheele J, et al. Prevalence and "Red Flags" Regarding Specified Causes of Back Pain in Older Adults Presenting in General Practice. Phys Ther. 2016 Mar;96(3):305–12. PubMed 26183589 ❐ How many cases of back pain in older adults have a serious underlying cause? Only about 6% … but 5% of those are fractures (which are serious, but they aren’t cancer either). The 1% is divided amongst all other serious causes. In this study of 669 patients, a vertebral fracture was found in 33 of them, and the chances of this diagnosis was higher in older patients with more intense pain in the upper back, and (duh) trauma.
  10. Chou R, Qaseem A, Snow V, et al. Diagnosis and Treatment of Low Back Pain: A Joint Clinical Practice Guideline from the American College of Physicians and the American Pain Society. Ann Intern Med. 2007 Oct 2;147(7):478–491. PubMed 17909209 ❐ PainSci Bibliography 56029 ❐

    Marvelously progressive, concise, and cogent guidelines for physicians on the treatment of low back pain. These guidelines almost entirely “get it right” in my opinion, and are completely consistent with recommendations I’ve been making for years on PainScience.com. They are particularly to be praised for strongly discouraging physicians from ordering imaging tests only “for patients with low back pain when severe or progressive neurologic deficits are present or when serious underlying conditions are suspected.”

  11. Or anything else. Pain is a surprisingly poor indicator, period! The human nervous system is kind of terrible about this: it routinely produces excessively loud alarms. See Pain is Weird: Pain science reveals a volatile, misleading sensation that comes entirely from an overprotective brain, not our tissues.
  12. There is much controversy and scientific uncertainty about trigger points. It’s undeniable that mammals suffer from sensitive spots in our soft tissues … but their nature remains unclear, and the “tiny cramp” theory could be wrong. The tiny cramp theory is formally known as the “expanded integrated hypothesis,” and it has been prominently criticized by Quintner et al (and not many others). However, it’s the mostly widely accepted explanation for now.
  13. Example: a friend of mine went to the hospital after a motorcycle accident. He’d flown over a car and landed hard on his head. Bizarrely, he was sent home with very little care, and no imaging of his back, even though he was complaining of severe lower back pain. A doctor reassured him that it was just muscle spasms. (This all happened at a hospital that was notorious for being over-crowded and poorly run.) The next day, still in agony, he went to see a doctor at a walk-in clinic, who immediately took him for an x-ray … which identified a serious lumbar fracture and imminent danger of paralysis. He had been lucky to get through the night without disaster! He was placed on a spine board immediately and sent for surgery. The moral of the story? Sometimes, when you’ve had a major trauma and your back really hurts, it’s because your back is broken.
  14. cauda equina syndrome involves “acute loss of function of the neurologic elements (nerve roots) of the spinal canal below the termination (conus) of the spinal cord,” where the nerves spread out like a horsetail (hence “equina”).
  15. Tomjesson.substack.com [Internet]. Jesson T. How rare is cauda equina syndrome?; 2021 November 17 [cited 23 Apr 13]. PainSci Bibliography 52215 ❐

    Tom Jesson went looking for the origins of the widespread claim that cauda equina syndrome is extremely rare — so rare that a family doctor will see only “one case in their career.” He found very little! It is, “with many degrees of separation, based on a Slovenian paper that probably under-estimates the incidence of CES.” There is not much hard data, but what he found (mostly summed up by Hoeritzauer 2020 suggests that CES is indeed rare, but probably nowhere near that rare: clinicians that help people with musculoskeletal health regularly “can expect to see about a dozen cases of CES.”

    It’s important to think through what “rare” means, because rare can either mean “so rare you can practically forget about it” or “rare but there; and you will see it—more than once!”. CES is the latter.

  16. That is, the parts of your body that touch a saddle when riding a horse: groin, buttock, and inner thighs. I experienced rather intense, terrifying awareness of symptoms in this area in the aftermath of my wife’s car accident in early 2010. With a mangled T12 vertebrae, she was at real risk of exactly this problem. Fortunately, she escaped that quite serious problem. But, sheesh, I was vigilant about it for a while! “Honey, any numbness in your saddle area today?”
  17. Angus M, Curtis-Lopez CM, Carrasco R, et al. Determination of potential risk characteristics for cauda equina compression in emergency department patients presenting with atraumatic back pain: a 4-year retrospective cohort analysis within a tertiary referral neurosciences centre. Emerg Med J. 2021 Oct. PubMed 34642235 ❐
  18. True numbness is not just a dead/heavy feeling (which is common, and caused even by minor muscular dysfunction in the area), but a substantial or total insensitivity to touch. You have true numbness if there are patches of skin where you cannot feel light touch. Such areas might still be sensitive to pressure: you could feel a poke, but as if it was through a layer of rubber. Most people have experienced true numbness at the dentist.
  19. Fairbank J, Hashimoto R, Dailey A, Patel AA, Dettori JR. Does patient history and physical examination predict MRI proven cauda equina syndrome? Evid Based Spine Care J. 2011 Nov;2(4):27–33. PubMed 23230403 ❐ PainSci Bibliography 52216 ❐
  20. This standard recommendation reinforces the alarming idea that low back pain that lasts longer than a few weeks is Really Bad News. It’s not. It’s a clue. It’s a reason for concern and alertness. But many cases of low back pain that last for 6 weeks will still go away. Once again, see the 2009 research published in the British Medical Journal, which showed that more than 30% of patients with “new” chronic low back pain will still recover without treatment.
  21. Spartacus is worthwhile, but the sex and violence is over-the-top: there’s no sugar-coating it. Definitely not a family drama. But the dramatic quality is excellent. After a couple of campy, awkward episodes at the start, the first season quickly gets quite good: distinctive film craft, interesting writing, and solid acting from nearly the whole cast. Andy Whitfield’s Spartacus is idealistic, earnest, and easy to like. I found it downright upsetting when I learned that he had passed away — as did many, many other fans I’m sure. See my personal blog for a little bit more of a review of Spartacus.
  22. Lei S, Jiang F, Su W, et al. Clinical characteristics and outcomes of patients undergoing surgeries during the incubation period of COVID-19 infection. EClinicalMedicine. 2020 2020/04/06. PainSci Bibliography 52605 ❐
  23. Report of the WHO-China Joint Mission on Coronavirus Disease 2019 (COVID-19). Accessed 2020-04-06.
  24. The symptoms of most infections are not directly caused by damage they do to our tissues, especially at first. We cannot feel cells being killed by a virus; what we actually do feel is our immune system’s reaction to the invasion. One purpose of that reaction is to force us to stay still — also known as rest — mostly by making movement feel incredibly difficult and unpleasant. This “sickness behaviour” is a generalized reaction to a wide variety of biological threats found in all animals (see subtle systemic inflammation).
  25. Premkumar A, Godfrey W, Gottschalk MB, Boden SD. Red Flags for Low Back Pain Are Not Always Really Red: A Prospective Evaluation of the Clinical Utility of Commonly Used Screening Questions for Low Back Pain. J Bone Joint Surg Am. 2018 Mar;100(5):368–374. PubMed 29509613 ❐

    Premkumar et al present evidence that the traditional “red flags” for ominous causes of back pain can be quite misleading. The correlation between red flags and ominous diagnoses is poor, and prone to producing false negatives: that is, sometimes there are no red flags even when there rally is something more serious going on. In a survey of almost 10,000 patients:

    “the absence of red flag responses did not meaningfully decrease the likelihood of a red flag diagnosis.”

    This is not even remotely a surprise to anyone who paid attention in back pain school, but it’s good to have some hard data on it.

  26. Premkumar A, Godfrey W, Gottschalk MB, Boden SD. Red Flags for Low Back Pain Are Not Always Really Red: A Prospective Evaluation of the Clinical Utility of Commonly Used Screening Questions for Low Back Pain. J Bone Joint Surg Am. 2018 Mar;100(5):368–374. PubMed 29509613 ❐

    Premkumar et al present evidence that the traditional “red flags” for ominous causes of back pain can be quite misleading. The correlation between red flags and ominous diagnoses is poor, and prone to producing false negatives: that is, sometimes there are no red flags even when there rally is something more serious going on. In a survey of almost 10,000 patients:

    “the absence of red flag responses did not meaningfully decrease the likelihood of a red flag diagnosis.”

    This is not even remotely a surprise to anyone who paid attention in back pain school, but it’s good to have some hard data on it.

  27. David WS, Bowley MP, Mehan Jr, et al. Case 19-2017 - A 53-Year-Old Woman with Leg Numbness and Weakness. N Engl J Med. 2017 Jun;376(25):2471–2481. PubMed 28636859 ❐ PainSci Bibliography 51965 ❐

Permalinks

https://www.painscience.com/articles/when-to-worry-about-low-back-pain-and-when-not-to.php

PainScience.com/bark_bite_lbp
PainScience.com/ominous_causes_of_back_pain
PainScience.com/back_pain_red_flags

linking guide

5,500 words