Results following fusion for chronic low back pain (CLBP) are unpredictable and generally not very satisfying. The major reason is the absence of a detailed description of the symptoms of patients with pain, if present, in a motion segment of the spine. Various radiological findings have been attributed to discogenic pain, but if these radiological signs were really true signs of such pain, fus...

Pain catastrophizing, a pattern of negative cognitive-emotional responses to actual or anticipated pain, maintains chronic pain and undermines response to treatments. Currently, precisely how pain catastrophizing influences pain processing is not well understood. In experimental settings, pain catastrophizing has been associated with amplified pain processing. This study sought to clarify pain ...

BACKGROUND Pilates exercise is recommended for people with chronic low back pain (CLBP). In the literature, however, Pilates exercise is described and applied differently to treat people with CLBP. These differences in the definition and application of Pilates exercise make it difficult to evaluate its effectiveness. OBJECTIVE The aim of this study was to establish consensus regarding the def...

The fear-avoidance model postulates that in chronic low back pain (CLBP) a fear of movement is acquired in the acute phase, which leads to subsequent avoidance of physical activity and contributes to the pain syndrome's becoming chronic. In the present event-related functional magnetic resonance imaging (fMRI) study of the neural correlates of the fear of movement, 60 women (30 CLBP patients, 1...

Article: Sit-up tests have been included in most youth and adult fitness test batteries. One logical reason for their inclusion is the possible relationship between poor abdominal strength and the incidence of low back pain. Therefore, a number of timed field tests have been proposed to measure abdominal function. However, the published data on the validity of field test measures are sparse. Th...

A systematic literature review of population prevalence studies of low back pain between 1966 and 1998 was conducted to investigate data homogeneity and appropriateness for pooling. Fifty-six studies were analyzed using methodologic criteria that examined sample representativeness, data quality, and pain definition. Acceptable studies were assessed for homogeneity and appropriateness for poolin...

QUESTION What risk factors have been identified for the first episode of low back pain in children and adolescents? Have these risk factors been validated? DESIGN Systematic review of prospective studies designed to identify possible modifiable and non-modifiable risk factors for the onset of low back pain in children and adolescents. PARTICIPANTS School children aged up to 18 years without...

INTRODUCTION Low back pain effects up to 80% of the population at some time during their active life. Questionnaires are available to help measure pain and disability. The Oswestry Disability Index (ODI) is the most commonly used outcome measure for low back pain. The aim of this study was to see if training in completing the ODI forms improved the scoring accuracy. PATIENTS AND METHODS The l...