| So how can doctors make a diagnosis? |
| Written by Administrator |
| Wednesday, 11 March 2009 03:16 |
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There are a number of symptoms like numbness in specific areas or pain under specific movements that allow a rather clear diagnosis for the cause of an individuals back pain. We also see ever improving technologies in medical imaging that allow the radiologist to have a good look into our interior. The problem is that especially in cases like back pain the radiological findings frequently do not correspond with the accounts of the patients - there is no objective measure to the degree of pain somebody claims to be suffering from, there is until today no way to establish whether a specific single nerve is irritated to which degree and finally there has been an increasing number of studies in recent years which emphasize psychological factors as the main source of back pain. So diagnosis of the causes for back pain mostly comes down to some kind of puzzle: the doctor will look for a combination in which “objective” radiographic findings, results from his own physical examination of the patient and his patients “subjective” accounts of his problems will correspond, then conclude from there that a likelihood exists for a certain cause and based on this suggest a therapy. Sometimes it works, often it does not and the patient may have to try several therapeutic approaches until he finally becomes pain free. |
| Last Updated ( Thursday, 12 March 2009 04:25 ) |