Med. praxi. 2022;19(4):272-278 | DOI: 10.36290/med.2022.042

Differential diagnosis of back pain, indications for physiotherapy

MUDr. Luděk Ryba, Ph.D.¹, MUDr. Robert Vyskočil¹, PhDr. Iva Marková²

¹ Ortopedická klinika Masarykovy univerzity a Lékařské fakulty Brno a Fakultní nemonice Brno

² Fakulta zdravotnických studií, Univerzita Pardubice

Back pain remains one of the most common reasons for patients to seek primary and emergency medical care. Risk factors with a potential impact on the development of back pain can generally be divided into individual factors (weight, height, age, genetic predispositions, smoking, general health, fitness, physical activity, history of previous back pain), psychosocial (inappropriate stress management patterns, stress, emotional problems) and work (job dissatisfaction, hard repetitive work). In the differential diagnosis, it is necessary to distinguish the pain transmitted from the skin and internal organs of the chest, pelvic abdomen, and also the degenerative joints disease of the limbs, especially the shoulder and hip. Back pain is divided into specific and dominant non-specific. It is important to always think about a serious illness that the red flags will alert us to. Chronic pain is affected by psychosocial factors and yellow flags are used to detect them. Part of conservative therapy is physiotherapy, divided into active and passive techniques. The goal is to return to movement as soon as possible and find an individual exercise program for each individual and at the same time provide psychological support in case of chronic problems. Prevention of back pain and patient education at every visit to the doctor is important.

Keywords: back pain, physiotherapy, warning signs, psychosocial etiology.

Published: September 29, 2022  Show citation