Der Schmerz
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These times of changing paradigms raise the question of the indications for and limits of physical therapy in back pain management. At present, several national and international guidelines for the care of chronic back pain are available. Unfortunately, the guidelines are often inconsistent concerning physiotherapy. ⋯ Considering the ICIDH-2 directives it is not helpful to judge efficacy solely by somatic parameters such as mobility and muscle force. A patient without good mobility could still return to work. A subjective feeling of well being or low disability on the side of the patient is an equally important parameter of successful treatment as the good physical capacity for daily life.
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Today, a wide range of efficient analgesic and non-analgesic drugs for the treatment of back pain are available. However, drugs should never be the only mainstay of a back pain treatment program. Non-steroidal antiinflammatory drugs (NSAID) are widely used in acute back pain. ⋯ Drugs are sometimes necessary for the patients to begin and persevere a multimodal treatment program. Drug therapy should be terminated as soon as other treatment strategies succeed. Unfortunately, no studies exist evaluating the place of analgesics within a multimodal treatment program.
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The central and lateral lumbar canals constitute complex osteofibrous neurovascular tunnels, allowing movement and deformation of the spine without loss of their main configuration. Intervertebral discs play an important role in determining their configuration. Disc degeneration may alter or even threat the functional anatomical relationships between successive adjacent "juncturae" of the vertebral column. ⋯ The sympathetic nerve plexus inside the anterior longitudinal ligament and the SNVs provide a network of nerve fibers around the vertebral bodies and intervertebral discs. These pathways explain the sympathetic component of the innervation of a number of spinal structures. The dorsal ramus innervates the facet joints at the corresponding level and one below, before it gives off muscular and cutaneous branches.
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Surgery in acute and/or chronic low back pain is still a matter of intensive and controversial discussions. A vast number of minimally invasive or so called semi-invasive procedures have been published in the last 3 decades, but evidence-based data on efficacy and benefit of most of these techniques are still lacking. However, empirical data suggest good or at least satisfactory clinical results for a limited number of procedures if they are applied under restrictive indication criteria. ⋯ In general a restrictive indication for surgery must be recommended especially for spinal fusion procedures. Non-fusion techniques such as intradiscal electro thermal therapy or spine arthroplasty with replacement of nucleus pulposus or total disc show promising early results; however, little is known about the long-term effect. It should be a principle to apply surgery in the least invasive way.
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In the last 50 years conventional treatments have not been able to slow down the expanding chronic low back pain problem. However, nowadays health care has changed according to a broad biopsychosocial model of health, the positive effect of activity on health and healing, emphasis on function rather than pain or impairment, and reliance upon clinical evidence. In search for new solutions "functional restoration" (FR) programs have been developed. ⋯ The patients' efficacy expectations are the most potent determinants of change in the training process. Exacerbation of pain is not taken as a failure of the therapeutic concept, but as a challenge to self-management. However, the important principle in managing chronic low back pain is "treating patients rather than spines."