Chronic Low Back Pain

Chronic low back pain is obviously unpleasant and best avoided – get your acute low back pain treated properly. The statistics often quoted in the research indicate that 80% of us will suffer from back pain in our adult lives, but that for the vast majority of people the pain settles within 12-weeks. If not correctly treated the likelihood a recurrence in the following 12-months increases drastically. Low back pain is often incorrectly diagnosed in the beginning and hence a pattern of pain has developed which is now more difficult to break.

Self Management

• Remain active, within the limits of your pain keep mobile.
• If the pain is severe enough to limit your mobility come and see us and get it sorted.
• Discuss with your GP the benefits or otherwise of pain relief, anti-inflammatories or muscle relaxant medications
• If you have pins and needles or numbness in the legs, make a time for treatment, that needs to be correctly assessed.

Physiotherapy Management

• Accurately assess, diagnose and treat your condition
• Consider what treatments you have had in the past and what has and has not worked to aid in both diagnosis and treatment
• Refer you to your GP, for referral to a Musculo-Skeletal Specialist, Neurosurgeon or Orthopaedic Surgeon as they deem appropriate.
• Offer feedback to your GP on your rate of recovery and alternative courses of treatment such as cortisone or ozone injections, prolotherapy or PRP.
• Establish a home programme of exercises incorporating core stability work, flexibility and conditioning.
• Establish independence in the performance of the exercises with a view to return to maximal pre-injury function as soon as possible