1/478. Thoracic disc herniation mimicking acute lumbar disc disease.STUDY DESIGN: Case report of a 49-year-old woman with a lower thoracic disc herniation mimicking acute lumbosacral radiculopathy. OBJECTIVE: To describe an unusual case of thoracic disc herniation mimicking acute lumbar disc disease. SUMMARY OF BACKGROUND DATA: Symptomatic thoracic disc herniation is rare and its clinical manifestations differ widely from those of cervical and lumbar disc herniations. Midline back pain and signs of spinal cord compression progressing over months or years are the predominant clinical features. Acute and subacute thoracic disc herniation occurs in less than 10% of patients, and isolated root pain is unusual. methods: A 49-year-old woman had acute low back pain radiation into the left buttock and the lateral aspect of the left leg and left foot. magnetic resonance imaging study showed a bulging disc and posterior osteophytes at T11-T12. RESULTS: Surgical removal of the herniated disc and osteophytes rapidly relieved her symptoms and neurologic deficits. A follow-up neurologic examination 3 years later showed normal motor and sensory functions, although low back soreness was noted occasionally. CONCLUSION: A case of thoracic disc herniation mimicking an acute lumbosacral radiculopathy is presented. Compression of the lumbosacral spinal nerve roots at the lower thoracic level after exit from the lumbar enlargement may be the mechanism for this unusual presentation.- - - - - - - - - - ranking = 1keywords = back pain, back, pain (Clic here for more details about this article) |
2/478. Pseudoporphyria induced by propionic acid derivatives.BACKGROUND: Pseudoporphyria is a photosensitive bullous skin disease that is distinguished from porphyria cutanea tarda (PCT) by its normal porphyrin profile. Drugs are a major cause of this disease, and the list of culprits is continually expanding. Nonsteroidal antiinflammatory agents (NSAIDs), especially naproxen and other propionic acid derivatives, appear to be the most common offenders. OBJECTIVE: The study was carried out to increase awareness about the etiology and characteristic features of pseudoporphyria. methods: We report two cases of pseudoporphyria caused by naproxen and oxaprozin. We review the current English language literature on this entity and discuss its clinical features, histology, ultrastructure, etiology, and pathophysiology. RESULTS: A 44-year-old man taking naproxen for chronic low back pain and a 20-year-old woman on oxaprozin for rheumatoid arthritis presented with tense bullae and cutaneous fragility on the face and the back of the hands. In both, skin biopsy showed a cell-poor subepidermal vesicle with festooning of the dermal papillae. Direct immunofluorescence revealed staining at the dermal-epidermal junction and around blood vessels with IgG in the first case and with IgG, IgA, and fibrin in the second case. urine collections and serum samples yielded normal levels of uro- and coproporphyrins. CONCLUSIONS: Most cases of pseudoporphyria are drug-induced. naproxen, the most common offender, has been associated with a dimorphic clinical pattern: a PCT-like presentation and one simulating erythropoietic protoporphyria in the pediatric population. Other NSAIDs of the propionic acid family can also cause pseudoporphyria.- - - - - - - - - - ranking = 0.50764011110043keywords = back pain, back, pain (Clic here for more details about this article) |
3/478. Paraspinal abscess following facet joint injection.Injection to the zygapophysial joint is a procedure which is performed frequently for diagnostic or therapeutic reasons in the management of back pain. It is generally considered to be free of significant complications. We report a patient who developed a paraspinal abscess following a lumbar facet joint injection.- - - - - - - - - - ranking = 0.48140693433723keywords = back pain, back, pain (Clic here for more details about this article) |
4/478. L4-5 disk lesion resulting in back pain with bowel, bladder and sexual dysfunction without paraparesis.This is a case report of a patient with bowel, bladder and sexual dysfunction associated with low back pain. This patient had an essentially normal neurological examination. There was radiological evidence of a disk lesion, and urodynamic findings consistent with lower motor neuron bladder dysfunction. His symptoms are attributed to a L4-5 disk herniation resulting in a partial cauda equina syndrome. The relevant anatomy is reviewed, and the differential diagnosis is discussed.- - - - - - - - - - ranking = 2.4070346716861keywords = back pain, back, pain (Clic here for more details about this article) |
5/478. The power of the visible: the meaning of diagnostic tests in chronic back pain.This article explores the meaning of diagnostic tests for people with chronic back pain. Lower back pain is one of the most common health problems in the US. Five to ten percent of the patients who visit a primary care provider for back pain ultimately develop a chronic condition. We draw on interviews with chronic back pain patients in Atlanta, Dallas and Seattle to argue that testing constitutes an important element in the legitimation of pain for these patients. We discuss three aspects that make testing an area of concern for patients: a strong historical connection between visual images and the medicalization of the interior of the body, a set of cultural assumptions that make seeing into the body central to confirming and normalizing patients' symptoms, and the concreteness of diagnostic images themselves. Our interviews show that when physicians cannot locate the problem or express doubt about the possibility of a solution, patients feel that their pain is disconfirmed. Faced with the disjunction between the cultural model of the visible body and the private experience of pain, patients are alienated not only from individual physicians but from an important aspect of the symbolic world of medicine. This paper concludes by suggesting that a fluid, less localized understanding of pain could provide a greater sense of legitimacy for back pain patients.- - - - - - - - - - ranking = 4.3764742272844keywords = back pain, back, pain (Clic here for more details about this article) |
6/478. Vascular backache and consideration of its pathomechanisms: report of two cases.We experienced two cases whose low back pain was improved after vascular reconstructive surgery for arteriosclerosis obliterans in the abdominal cavity. Based on these observations, we propose the term "vascular backache" and we discuss possible pathomechanisms underlying this condition. One patient had a stenotic lesion in the lower abdominal aorta and was operated transluminally; the other patient had a diffuse stenotic lesion from the abdominal aorta to the femoral arteries and had an axillofemoral bypass operation. After surgery, they experienced a reduction of backache along with an improvement of the vascular intermittent claudication. It is suggested that one factor leading to low back pain in some cases might be various degrees of ischemia of the extensor muscles in the lumbar spine.- - - - - - - - - - ranking = 1.1202129292537keywords = back pain, back, pain (Clic here for more details about this article) |
7/478. Renal auto-transplantation with interposed PTFE arterial graft: not necessarily a cure for loin pain/haematuria syndrome.A case report of a 23 year old man is described who was diagnosed with loin pain/haematuria syndrome. Despite auto-transplantation with interposed polytetrafluoroethylene (PTFE)-prosthesis in the arterial anastomosis the symptoms recurred. A possible mechanism for the recurrent pain is proposed.- - - - - - - - - - ranking = 0.065717727374046keywords = pain (Clic here for more details about this article) |
8/478. Applying the results of self-report measures to individual patients: an example using the Roland-Morris Questionnaire.Information concerning a patient's functional status is often obtained by asking the patient about activities that cannot be assessed directly in the clinical setting. This information is usually acquired through a verbal exchange between the clinician and patient. The measurement properties of the verbal exchange are unknown. An alternate method of obtaining this information is when patients self-report their functional status. The measurement properties of self-report questionnaires are well known; however, these measures are used infrequently for the evaluation of functional status, progress, and outcome in the clinic. Two reasons are possible for the infrequent use of self-report questionnaires: (1) values obtained from self-report measures have not been used to guide the care of the patient, and (2) a perception exists that these measures take a great deal of time to administer and score. The purpose of this clinical commentary was to describe the application, scoring, and use of a functional status measure (the Roland-Morris Questionnaire) for persons with low back pain and to illustrate how this questionnaire can be efficiently incorporated into clinical practice to aid decision making concerning individual patients. Three patient scenarios are used to illustrate the issues raised in this paper.- - - - - - - - - - ranking = 0.48140693433723keywords = back pain, back, pain (Clic here for more details about this article) |
9/478. An unusual cause of back pain.This case describes what may become an increasingly common clinical problem in australia as the proportion of our population originally derived from South East asia, ages. Our patient was of Chinese origin and presented with back pain which was eventually found to be due to metastatic disease from an otherwise silent hepatoma, in association with unrecognised chronic hepatitis b infection.- - - - - - - - - - ranking = 2.4070346716861keywords = back pain, back, pain (Clic here for more details about this article) |
10/478. osteoblastoma in lumbar vertebral body.We report a young man with low back pain suspected to have a disc protrusion. Imaging suggested a tumour of the dorsal portion of the fifth lumbar vertebral body. Operation suggested a giant-cell tumour and subsequent histology showed an osteoblastoma. All typical imaging features of osteoblastoma are demonstrated in this rather uncommon location. Contrast-enhancing bone-marrow oedema on MRI, with mild enhancement of the tumour, together with the CT appearances were the clues to the diagnosis.- - - - - - - - - - ranking = 0.48140693433723keywords = back pain, back, pain (Clic here for more details about this article) |
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