The use of low back injections is often utilized for patients with low back pain and nerve pain (radicular pain) and/or leg numbness, pins and needles, or nerve root weakness (radiculopathy). In an older adult these symptoms may be due to a narrowing of the canals in which the low back nerve roots exit (lumbar...
Is a picture worth 1000 words? When having low back pain, you may undergo an MRI or CT scan. As our technology continues to improve MRI and CT scanners have become more proficient at finding changes in our low back. This higher imaging quality comes with a cost in that many of these positive findings...
Strains and irritation to the low back can be very common but extremely frustrating when lasting longer than a few weeks. The low back (Lumbar Spine) is a large and resilient structure that can handle tremendous forces and movement; however the loads of activity can supersede the capacity of the low back tissue can handle....
Did you know the more movies Nicolas Cage makes; the more people drown in pools? Or the worse the rating of M. Night Shyamalan on Rotten Tomatoes; the less total newspaper sales? There is a significant difference between correlation and causation in the world and is especially noted in medicine. As we all deal with...
Low back pain is the most common reason patients seek out the care of their primary care physician and Physical Therapist. Physical Therapy has been shown to be an effective first line treatment for both managing the symptoms of low back pain, as well as, preventing their recurrence. Manual therapy techniques performed by Physical Therapists...
Do you have low back pain? At our Boulder Physical Therapy and Lafayette Physical Therapy clinics we often examine your hip mobility even though your low back is your area of complaint. Adjacent areas to the back, including the hip, can influence how we move and perform each day. A recent study investigated the relationship...
Physical Therapists at Mend are both board certified in orthopedics and fellowship trained in Orthopedic Manual Physical Therapy. Our prior post documented the superior outcomes found when patients are treated by fellowship trained Physical Therapists. This data shows patients’ pain and disability were treated more efficiently and effectively by fellowship trained PT. A recent study...
The evidence and momentum continue to build for seeing a Physical Therapist first for patients with low back pain. Physical Therapists have continually been shown to be clinically and cost effective providers for low back pain conditions. This approach, direct access to Physical Therapy, has been utilized by large hospital systems and Fortune 500 companies...
In our Boulder Physical Therapy practice, individualized, progressive exercise is an essential part of each patient’s recovery. Teaching correct exercise technique often requires both tactile and verbal cues. Specifically in the lower body we cue to both improve the relative motions at the spine and hips to optimize movements for pain reduction, strength development, and...
We have written previously on the limitations of back surgery to reduce pain, disability, and improve function in patients with back pain. The mismanagement of low back pain, including unnecessary surgery, can often be traced back to a clinician practicing outside of evidence based clinical guidelines. This unwarranted practice variation leads to higher health care costs...
