Taming The SRU
Taming The SRU - August 31, 2020 - By Gillespie L
"Take away points
- Nonspecific, acute low back pain can be thought of as a diagnosis of exclusion and other etiologies should be considered first.
- The majority of people at some point in their lives experience low back pain, although it often improves significantly over the 1-3-month period that ensues. Unfortunately, there are high recurrence rates.
- Treatment of acute low back pain in the ED is different than treatment of chronic low back pain.
- Pharmacologic therapy can be combined with non-pharmacologic therapy for improved outcomes (ex. patient education).
- NSAIDs show some mild benefit for analgesia and disability reduction. Acetaminophen has no recent, strong evidence supporting its use in acute low back pain.
- Muscle relaxants have mixed results for treatment of acute low back pain, and have significant side effect profiles.
- Lidocaine patches may provide significant benefit without burden of systemic adverse effects although there is not enough evidence to strengthen the argument for its routine use yet.
- Treatment-focused patient education, especially regarding prognosis and expectations, is an essential component of nonpharmacological therapy for acute low back pain."