Patients with chronic pain value empathic doctors who validate concerns and communicate clearly

Researchers measured the associations among process, outcomes and patient satisfaction within general medical care for chronic low back pain, provided through an ongoing patient-physician relationship. They also used two models to measure factors associated with patient satisfaction, including studying a subgroup of participants experiencing chronic low back pain who were being treated by the same physician for more than five […]

Injectable tissue provides significant, long-term relief for chronic back pain

A minimally invasive treatment that injects allograft disc tissue into the spine to relieve pain associated with degenerative disc disease provides significant improvement in pain and function over a sustained period, according to new research to be presented at the Society of Interventional Radiology Annual Scientific Meeting in Phoenix. The treatment, known as viable disc allograft supplementation, injects specialized cells […]

Which medications are best for treating acute low back pain?

Acute low back pain is a common cause of disability. An analysis in the Journal of Orthopaedic Research examined which non-opioid drugs are best for treating this condition. The analysis, which included all randomized controlled trials published to date (18 studies with 3,478 patients), showed that muscle relaxants and non-steroidal anti-inflammatory drugs (NSAIDs) could effectively and rapidly reduce symptoms. The combination of […]

How new motion-sensing technology may help standardize back-pain care

Digital health systems can tell clinicians when someone’s heart-disease risk calls for a drug to lower cholesterol or whether insulin shots are warranted for a person with type 2 diabetes. But for millions of low-back pain sufferers, care decisions rely heavily on subjective measures of patient discomfort – often leading to expensive tests and treatments (back pain is the third-highest U.S. health care […]