Differential Diagnosis in Upper Back Pain

Unusual Differential Diagnosis of Upper Abdominal Pain

We here present an interesting unusual case of upper abdominal pain. The patient was a 38-year-old man, who was admitted to our hospital complaining of right upper quadrant pain caused by a toothpick that perforated the anterior gastric wall and penetrated segment I of the liver. After endoscopic removal and an initially uneventful course, computed tomography revealed a perigastric abscess that...

Differential diagnosis of back pain in adult operated scoliosis patients

Back pain in adult operated scoliosis patients is a usually a major postoperative problem which has to be differentially diagnosed from a number of pathologies. The infection, immediate or delayed infection after elective spinal instrumentation and fusion is the principal postoperative problem for the patient and the surgeon. Surgical treatment is mandated in the majority of these cases, with t...

Repeated Imaging for Diagnosis of Low Back Pain

Giant ulcerative lesion on the upper back: using a differential diagnosis to formulate a clinical approach

A 57-year-old white man with no significant past medical history presented to the county hospital emergency room with complaints of increasing fatigue and lightheadedness over the past year. Upon further questioning, he revealed a large ulcerative lesion on his upper back that he reported started as a small ulcer and progressed to its current size over a 16-year period. The patient had not soug...

Differential diagnosis of back pain in adult scoliosis (non operated patients)

The relationship between back pain and scoliosis is not clear. Old long-term follow-up studies reported no greater incidence or degree of back pain in adult scoliosis than in normal population when matched for age and sex. At the end of the seventies studies were contradictories. While Fowles et al (1978) concluded that untreated scoliosis could be considered as a disabling disease in the adult...