title: Chronic low back pain: how and when to operate.
abstract: The authors consider the diagnosis of the vertebral and extravertebral causes of low back pain, emphasizing how the time it takes to make a diagnosis is the most important phase of any surgical treatment to be undertaken to treat low back pain. During this phase, particularly useful are psychological tests of the patient with chronic low back pain. Surgical methods of decompression and stabilization may be considered in relation to an evaluation of the costs and benefits of surgery. Periduroradicular scar and muscular fibrosis, pain in the site of the removal of bone grafts, and mechanical overloading of the segments adjacent to the vertebral fusion are still unresolved, and the possible causes of iatrogenic pathology.
authors.affiliation: Clinica Ortopedica, Università, Verona.
authors.forename: P
authors.initials: P
authors.lastname: Bartolozzi
authors.forename: M
authors.initials: M
authors.lastname: Cassini
mesh_terms: D006801:Humans; D017116:Low Back Pain / Q000175:diagnosis / Q000209:etiology / Q000601:surgery*; D008159:Lumbar Vertebrae / Q000601:surgery