title: The classification of low back pain.
abstract: The majority of patients with low back pain offer no objective clinical findings on which to make a diagnosis on the basis of physical examination. Therefore a diagnostic categorization of complaint based on duration and location is proposed. The justification for this organization is the assumption that the majority of back pain is secondary to deterioration within the disc. Thus the appropriate treatment program is focused at methods designed to find the pain source, and look to the health of the disc. It is on this basis that various treatment approaches for the nine classifications are proposed.
authors.affiliation: Division of Orthopaedic Surgery, University of Texas Southwestern Medical School, Dallas 75235.
authors.forename: V
authors.initials: V
authors.lastname: Mooney
mesh_terms: D001416:Back Pain / Q000145:classification* / Q000209:etiology; D006801:Humans; D007403:Intervertebral Disc / Q000503:physiopathology; D013122:Spinal Diseases / Q000145:classification* / Q000503:physiopathology