Abstracts & Literature Review 2

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How Often Is Low Back Pain Not Coming From the Back?

Jonathan N. Sembrano, MD, and David W. Polly, Jr., MD Spine. Volume 34, Number1, pp E27-E32. ©2008, Lippincott Williams & Wilkins

JACO Editorial Reviewer: Larry L. Swank, DC, MS, FACO

Published: September, 2009
Journal of the Academy of Chiropractic Orthopedists
September 2009, Volume 6, Issue 3
Received: 15 August 2009
Accepted: 25 August 2009

The original article copyright belongs to the original publisher. This review is available from: http://www.dcorthoacademy.com © 2009 Swank and the Academy of Chiropractic Orthopedists. This is an Open Access article which permits unrestricted use, distribution, and reproduction in any medium, provided the original work is properly cited.

JACO Editorial Summary:

• Title of the article and the question “ What are the relative frequencies of the spine, the sacroiliac joint, and the hip joint being the main pain generator among patients who present with low back pain, at a spine surgeon’s clinic?” is relative to chiropractic practice.
• Low back pain is a very common complaint that a chiropractic orthopedist would see in their practices. The results of this article showed that a high percentage of patients in the study had pain relating to the spine, sacroiliac joint and hip joint. Having evidence based information is important in the decision making process for examination and treatment of low back cases.
• This study also had objectives to determine the relative frequencies of the anatomical sites in question as being the major source of pain as well as overlapping syndromes.
• There was no follow-up beyond the initial diagnosis to see if the initial diagnosis was correct or accurate. The relative frequency chart may be based on inaccurate diagnosis thus providing false data.
• Each physician used their own method to arrive at a diagnosis (which may or may not be accurate). There was no algorithm used in working up a patient to arrive at a diagnosis.
• The above limitations were mentioned in the article so that the reader was able to consider them into their final impression of the study.
• This article was very well referenced.