 Previous to starting your back pain treatment, your doctor may do tests to determine what is causing the patient's back pain. Until you are totally immobilized from a back injury, your doctor probably will test your range of motion and nerve function and touch your body to establish the area of discomfort.
Blood and urine tests will make sure the pain is not because of an infection or other systemic problem.
X-rays are useful in investigating broken bones or other skeletal defects. They can at times help locate problems in connective tissue. To examine soft-tissue damage, computed tomography (CT) or magnetic resonance imaging (MRI) scans may be needed. X-rays and imaging studies are generally used only for checking out direct trauma to the back, back pain with fever, or nerve problems such as extremity weakness or numbness. To find out possible nerve or muscle damage, an electromyogram (EMG) can be useful.
What Are the Treatments?
Since back pain stems from a variety of causes, treatment goals are pain relief and restored movement. The central treatment for relieving back pain from tension or slight injury is rest. To ease the pain and inflammation an ice pack can be useful, as well as aspirin or another non-steroidal anti-inflammatory drug (NSAID). Once the inflammation subsides, applying heat can alleviate muscles and connective tissue.
Enduring bed rest is not only no longer considered necessary for most cases of back pain, it is actually potentially harmful, making recovery slower and potentially causing new problems. On the whole, you will be expected to start normal, such as walking, non-strenuous activity within 24 to 72 hours. Subsequently you should begin controlled exercise or physical therapy. Physical therapy treatments may occupy massage, whirlpool baths, ultrasound, controlled application of heat and individually tailored exercise programs to help you take back full use of the back. Strengthening either the abdominal or back muscles helps stabilize the spine. You can prevent further back injury by learning and doing gentle stretching exercises and proper lifting techniques and maintaining good posture.
In case back pain keeps you from normal daily activities, your doctor can help by recommending or prescribing pain medications. Over-the-counter painkillers for example Tylenol, aspirin or ibuprofen can be useful. Your doctor may prescribe prescription strength anti-inflammatories/pain medicines or may prefer to recommend combination opioid/acetaminophen medications for instance Vicodin or Percocet. Besides, some doctors prescribe muscle relaxants. But be careful, these medications have their main effect on the brain, not the muscles and often cause drowsiness.
If your main doctor isn't able to help you control the pain, you may resort you to a back specialist or a pain specialist. On occasion these doctors use injections of steroids or anesthetics to help control the pain. Recently some newer treatments have been developed to help with the pain relief. One of these is radiofrequency ablation - a process of delivering electrical stimulation to specific nerves to make them less sensitive to pain, or by delivering enough electricity to actually destroy the nerve to prevent further pain. Related type of procedure that delivers heat to a herniated disc can shrink the disc so that it no longer bulging onto the nerve roots causing pain. Supplementary medicines such as antidepressants and anticonvulsants are sometimes prescribed to help with pain related to irritated nerves.
However, knowing the cause of the pain and fixing the problem if possible should be primary in the course of your treatment.
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