Chronic low back pain has plagued thousands of individuals for many years causing much pain and discomfort as well as time off from work or their daily routines. There has usually been the same traditional type of treatment methods and strategies to cure this painful problem. Recently, doctors have been notified of chronic low back pain treatment guidelines regarding the methods of low pain treatment.
The reasons for the chronic low back pain treatment guidelines is that there is a variety of different treatment methods and different costs, yet most of the results are the same. The American College of Physicians and the American Pain Society have made and entire group of chronic low back pain treatment guidelines for doctors to use with each patient. They want each patient to be treated differently based on certain factors.
One of the factors in the chronic low back pain treatment guidelines states that the causes of the back pain should be put in specific categories such as mechanical back pain like vertebra, disc, facet joints, nerve root, spinous process and traverse process; congenital conditions like scoliosis; infections, tumors and diseases; and injuries like sports injuries or whiplash.
Prior to the setting of chronic low back pain treatment guidelines, almost all of these back problems were treated in the same variety of ways with usually the same results.
Another factor in the chronic low back pain treatment guidelines is that there should be certain criteria on if X-rays and other imaging tests will be taken on the patient. This criteria will depend on what kind of back pain the patient is suffering and why. Yet another factor is what type of back pain the patient should get certain medications prescribed and what kind they should be. Whether they are prescription, alternative, holistic, physical therapy or massage will be determined by what type works best for a specific back pain.
By using the chronic low back pain treatment guidelines, it is the hope that patients will be successfully treated for their back pain much sooner without having to go through so many different treatments. This will also save on medical bills and help keep health costs down. The rising cost of health care has been a problem steadily the past few years and hopefully these new guidelines will help the situation.
When these chronic low back pain treatment guidelines are used all the time, the patients will know what treatment they are getting and why they are getting it as well as understanding their case better.