Back Pain: A Simplified Guide.

Saifee Hospital, Mumbai S Y is suffering from back pain for more than 5 years. She has been diagnosed as Slip disc / Discogenic pain / Back Sprain / Metabolic back pain by various specialists. She has been on and off medication for more than 4-5 years and with on and off physiotherapy. This sounds like a common patient who has back issues which has not settled and patient is in pain. Back pain is one of the most common pain symptoms that bring a patient to the doctor. Almost 8-9 of 10 human beings will suffer from back pain once in a lifetime at least. Low back pain is one of the 10 most common diseases globally.1 Persistent low back pain could be seen in 5 to 36% of patients’ globally.2 The economic impact of back pain is huge, more than 100 billion USD which includes direct and indirect cost to the economy.3 Pain has been slowly recognised around the world as 5th vital sign and vital signs are taken seriously. Purpose of recognising pain as a vital sign is to improve pain control of the patient to effectively deliver quality care to the patient. The same is true for back pain and controlling back pain will surely improve the disease burden on society. As the back pain is controlled it might be able to improve the health and wealth of the society!