Back pain in the lumbar region can indicate various diseases of the spine, disturbances in the connections of nerve structures, injuries of internal organs, soft tissues and oncological tumors. Pain syndrome can have different intensity and nature of manifestation. Depending on the type of pain that occurs, the pathology can be identified, but to get an accurate diagnosis, an examination is carried out, including instrumental diagnostics. This allows you to find out why the pain occurs. Based on the results of the examination, the doctor chooses the treatment.
Types of pain
Back pain in the lumbar region can indicate the development of serious pathologies. But in most cases, the concern is benign and is associated with the influence of various external factors:
- hypothermia;
- staying in an uncomfortable position for a long time;
- compression of blood vessels;
- soft tissue damage due to trauma.
When diagnosing back pain, the doctor pays attention to the nature of the manifestation and its duration. If the pain appears due to a simple cold or hypothermia, it will disappear completely 2 weeks after using ointments containing non-steroidal anti-inflammatory ingredients. They will not help cure the disease, but after them it does not hurt to move.
If the pain in the spine does not go away, despite the use of local medications, and sometimes intensifies, a full examination is necessary. In some cases, such a symptom is an alarming sign that indicates the development of dangerous diseases. With diseases of the spine, during an attack, the pain can radiate to different areas of the body: legs, arms, hips. Often such an attack is accompanied by unpleasant sensations in the body: a feeling of numbness, tingling, lumps, burning.
In most cases, pain in the lumbar region appears suddenly, is acute and resembles a lumbago (lumbago). Patients themselves describe the pain as shooting, sharp, sometimes tightening and less intense. At the time of an attack, a person's movements are limited and it is possible to straighten the lower back only through pain. The movements do not bring relief and sometimes provoke increased pain. The acute condition may last only a few minutes, but sometimes it continues for a day or more.
Women and men over 50, as well as people who have suffered serious injuries, experience chronic lower back pain. In this case, it is constant, but tolerable; patients note only slight discomfort, stiffness of mobility in the morning and pain at night. Chronic pain attacks can be triggered by stress, lifting weights or hypothermia. The rest of the time there is no pain, there is stiffness and discomfort.
Lower back pain in pregnant women
Women often experience lower back pain during pregnancy. Its appearance is accompanied by natural changes. As the fetus grows, around the second trimester of pregnancy, a change in the center of gravity occurs, causing postural deformity with a deviation in the lumbar region. This change is not dangerous, it happens suddenly in more than 70% of women, but it should be monitored as it can lead to serious health problems in the future.
During pregnancy, no special treatment is performed. To alleviate the intensity of painful attacks, the doctor may recommend the woman to take NSAIDs topically. In some cases, it is recommended to wear support structures to ensure proper distribution of the load on the back.
Also, expectant mothers should not neglect the general rules, they should rest regularly and avoid wearing high-heeled shoes. Be careful when bending down to pick up something. Straighten your back and straighten up, then you need to get up as slowly as possible. You should also pay attention to choosing a bed at home, it should be comfortable.
Pain at night and in the morning
If severe discomfort disturbs a person mainly at night and occurs in the morning immediately after waking up, the problem should be sought in the quality of sleep at night. The appearance of sharp painful sensations is associated with the wrong position of the body at night during the rest period. The first thing you should do at home is change the mattress, bed and pillow. It would be good if the bed was orthopedic.
If the pain is observed only in the morning, it is worth considering the possibility of making sudden movements after waking up. It is better to wake up earlier and do a light warm-up of the muscles and joints while lying in bed. When you regularly perform such exercises, you can forget about the manifestation of pain. It will be much easier to bend and the feeling that your back is stiff will go away. It will be easier to get up after warming up.
It is also worth considering that the spine and lower back suffer from excess body weight. The problem of back pain occurs more often in obese individuals, as well as in patients who lead a sedentary lifestyle. After normalizing the behavior and improving the quality of night rest, the periodic pain goes away if it is not accompanied by any disease.
Back pain radiates to the legs
Pain that appears in the back can spread throughout the body. Most often it radiates to the leg, and can involve part of the leg and reach the heel. The cause of the pain is sciatica, lumbago or radiculitis, that is, pathologies related to nerve tissue damage. Due to the changes in the structure of the cartilage tissue, which leads to the deformation of the vertebrae and the formation of osteophytes, the scratching of the nerve endings occurs, against the background of which attacks of sharp pain appear, radiating to the legs.
Acute pain
The duration of acute pain attacks varies. They can last from a few minutes to many weeks. Chronic pain can appear unnoticed and severe for a person; the patient gets used to it and may not feel it when the attack passes.
Acute, unbearable pain attacks in the lumbar region are characteristic of various diseases:
- scoliosis;
- myositis;
- arthritis;
- arthrosis;
- neurological lesions;
- tumor processes;
- osteomyelitis;
- spondylitis
If the pain has a shooting character, it means that the roots of the spinal cord are involved in the pathological inflammatory process. If the pain seems monotonous, dull and spreads to the abdominal cavity, inflammation of the liver should be suspected. Severe attacks that disrupt consciousness and cause its loss may signal urolithiasis or pyelonephritis.
Causes of back pain
Back pain in the lumbar region can have various causes. Many of them lead to the development of pathologies that significantly reduce the quality of life, in which pain becomes a constant companion. Trying to deal with the problem yourself is practically pointless and difficult; an accurate diagnosis and the selection of competent treatment can be made only on the basis of instrumental diagnostic results.
The most common causes of back pain:
- intervertebral hernial protrusions;
- osteochondrosis;
- disorders in the functioning of the gastrointestinal tract;
- curvature of the spine;
- tumors;
- damage to muscles and ligaments;
- soft tissue infections.
Often the cause of the pain is simple hypothermia, which affects the largest nerve in the human body, the sciatic nerve. Also, against the background of hypothermia, it can clot, which causes acute pain. Other factors can cause attacks:
- physical inactivity;
- excessive nervous tension;
- hard physical work;
- damage and injury.
Back pain can occur with urolithiasis; they accompany an attack. They are also characteristic of many sexually transmitted diseases. Pain in the lumbar region in women is not always pathological. It is a physiological norm if it occurs before menstrual bleeding or at the beginning of menopause. In these cases, the conditions are not dangerous and can be controlled through the use of sedatives. With all the listed pathologies, it is problematic to move, bend or do any work at home.
Diseases of the spine
The main cause of back pain is various diseases, deformations and lesions of the spine. Pain can be of a completely different nature. The intensity of their manifestation depends on many factors and varies greatly depending on the affected part of the spine. The most common types of pain observed are:
- periodic;
- local or local;
- pulling or squeezing;
- burning and cutting;
- the shooting.
The intensity of symptomatic manifestations may depend on stress, sitting in an uncomfortable position in a chair, sports and physical activity. The discomfort increases when you stand or sit awkwardly. When the muscle fibers burst, lumbago occurs and the whole area hurts. With such pain, stiffness of movement appears, the symptom spreads to the back of the thigh and can reach the calves and even the feet. Much depends on the type of disease and its nature. Pathology should be treated by a specialist.
Intervertebral hernia
Intervertebral hernias of the lumbar region are often formed with osteochondrosis in the later stages of development. They usually cover mainly the lumbar region, the lower back and are formed between the 4-5 vertebrae, as well as in the sacral area. The pain syndrome in this case is unpleasant, intrusive, accompanied by damage to the nerve roots and poor blood circulation. The pain is similar to that which occurs with radiculitis and intensifies when standing or sitting on an uncomfortable stool. If the hernial formation is large, it compresses the spinal cord, a person experiences a loss of sensitivity, and in complicated cases, paralysis is possible due to the hernia that enters between the intervertebral discs.
You can understand what worries you about intervertebral hernia by the appearance of the following episodes:
- it is impossible to stand without support on a chair or other surface, this is due to increased loads on the intervertebral discs;
- lying on the stomach is extremely uncomfortable;
- a feeling of stiffness in the back;
- it is difficult to bend forward;
- arching the back is impossible because of the pain that prevents movement.
Hernia treatment is offered conservatively and operatively. The appropriate method is determined depending on the patient's condition. Conservative treatment of the disease in advanced cases is ineffective.
Rachiocampsis
With small bends, pain does not appear. A feeling of fatigue may appear; a person wants to spend more time lying down because the pain is worse when standing or sitting. Various neurological disorders appear with second-degree deformities. At this stage, pain appears, which can appear moderately and moderately intense, present on the left and on the right. As the disease progresses, the discomfort intensifies during the day, in advanced forms it becomes unbearable and is not relieved by local and systemic sedatives. It is difficult to completely get rid of the manifestation; curvature can be cured quickly.
Osteoporosis
This disease often occurs in men and women over 50 years old. The pathology is characterized by the rapid loss of bone tissue. Due to such a loss, fragility occurs, the vertebrae become less strong and damage is possible even with minor injuries, physical exercises or heavy lifting. Patients bend only out of discomfort and return from a bent position with severe pain. For a person to pick up something from the floor, it is better to sit down and straighten the back, and then stand up. If you sit first, the health risks of osteoporosis will be reduced.
Osteoporosis pain is not just due to fractures. The disease is dangerous, it can be used to register a disability group.
Spinal cord injuries
The most common injury is a bruise. If it is mild, there is moderate discomfort. It tends to intensify during the day with movement, causing local swelling with hematoma and hemorrhage. The symptom always increases with movement and exercise. In severe cases, the problem not only hurts, but can be accompanied by neurological disorders, especially if the nerve endings are involved in the process. It is impossible to completely get rid of the problem; it is not always possible to cure the consequences of injuries even surgically.
Soft tissue and kidney injuries
With bruising of soft tissues, mild pain appears, which decreases after local use of anti-inflammatory compounds. The pain is always local, the bruised area is swollen and hemorrhages are possible.
If, in combination with the described symptoms, the pain in the lumbar region on the left is accompanied by the appearance of blood in the urine, this means that there is damage to the kidney. The discomfort will be more intense; with serious damage to the organs of the excretory system, urination is impaired or becomes impossible. Hematomas can appear on the lower back. The development of shock and life-threatening conditions is not excluded.
Spinal infections
Infectious lesions of the spine are more dangerous. Osteomyelitis can be:
- postoperative;
- post-traumatic;
- contact;
- hematogenous.
In acute cases, the disease progresses at lightning speed. It is characterized by increasing pain manifestations that intensify during the day, accompanied by high body temperature and a very strong deterioration of the general condition. The nature of the disturbance can be different: vibration, pressure, explosion. Attacks are severe, hinder movement and force the person to freeze in one position because it hurts to move. In chronic pathologies, fistulas can appear with the formation of purulent secretions.
An unusual but dangerous disease of the spine is spinal tuberculosis. Already in the initial stage of development, it causes deep and very strong pains below, which reach their peak after exercise. The gait of men and women becomes stiff. As the bony structures are destroyed, the nerve roots are compressed, the pain becomes burning and spreads to the lower part of the body.
With an epidural abscess of the spine, the pain is quite deep, very strong, accompanied by chills and muscle tension. Against the background of progress, the radicular syndrome intensifies, paresis appears and the functioning of the pelvic organs is interrupted.
Muscle damage
Aching pain in the lower back area can occur after physical activity, lifting weights or performing intense exercises. It also appears during prolonged standing in a static position with tension in the lower back and gluteal muscles.
With such a lesion, discomfort is manifested less intensely at rest and after rest, after applying a warming oil. Muscle damage or myositis occurs not only against the background of infections. It can be provoked by stress and hypothermia of the body, severe poisoning and metabolic disorders. The condition is most often accompanied by excruciating pain.
Myofascial syndrome
Myofascial syndrome is classified as a painful condition in which discomfort in the lower back is accompanied by painful muscle tension. During an attack, trigger points appear in the affected area. The sources of pain are muscles and fascia, connective tissue. For the treatment of this pathology, specialists prescribe tranquilizers, non-steroidal anti-inflammatory drugs and tranquilizers.
In some cases, it is indicated to treat the disease using centrally acting muscle relaxants. Such tools are designed to reduce tonic tension, reduce agitation and provoke relaxation of the muscles involved in spasm so that the person can bend. In some cases, specialists use blockage of points by administering anesthetics.
Tumors of the spine, kidneys
Tumors of the spine and spinal cord are quite rare. The frequency of detection of such diseases is not more than 0. 5% of the total number of diagnosed cancer pathologies. Neoplasms can be either benign or malignant. Depending on this, the prognosis varies significantly.
With this pathology, the distinctive symptom is pain in the lumbar region. With benign etiology, the discomfort is relieved through the use of medications. If the formation is malignant, the treatment must be complex, often reducing to surgery.
Also, pain in the lower back on the left can be traced to kidney cancer. It will have a pronounced character, it can be painful, urgent, explosive. Anxiety increases over time and urination disorders develop. Do not steam or apply heat to the affected area. Normalization of the condition is possible after removal of the formation.
What to do after acute back pain
If acute back pain appears for a moment, the situation can be controlled by itself. If possible, you should visit a specialist and undergo an examination to reduce the risk of a repeated attack.
It is necessary to urgently contact a specialist if the following symptoms appear:
- back pain of any nature continues for a week;
- against the background of pain, body temperature rises;
- discomfort appeared at the site of previous injuries and damage;
- pain spreads throughout the body;
- The sensitivity of certain areas is lost.
In these cases, the pain cannot be ignored. It is important to see a doctor as soon as possible and start treatment, otherwise the disease will progress.
Which doctor should I contact?
If you suspect the development of diseases of the musculoskeletal system, you should consult a traumatologist or neurologist. Specialists will conduct a study, physical examination and prescribe the necessary instrumental examination. If your back hurts suddenly, you can call an ambulance. You can use soothing gel at home.
If you suspect that pain in the lumbar region is due to kidney damage, you should visit a urologist or nephrologist. You can also see a therapist. Each of the specialists will tell you what to do about back pain that manifests itself against the background of kidney disease, and will also prescribe additional examination. Laboratory tests of the patient's blood and urine are required; they are necessary to confirm or reject the disease.
If back pain occurs sporadically in women and is associated with menstruation or menopause, it is worth discussing this issue with a gynecologist. A specialist will help you choose a treatment that will eliminate the discomfort. In cases where you need to clarify the origin of the pain syndrome, you should visit the therapist, family doctor or general practitioner. The doctor will conduct an examination and determine the preliminary cause of the violation.
Diagnosing
There are many factors that can cause pain in the lumbar region, so even an experienced doctor cannot make an accurate diagnosis without an examination. The following methods are used as part of the diagnosis:
- X-ray examination of the painful area;
- MRI;
- Ultrasound of pelvic and abdominal organs;
- general analysis of urine and blood;
- electroneuromyography.
If the pain occurs against the background of pathologies of the genitourinary system or the gastrointestinal tract, an endoscopic examination of the intestines may be required. If the development of neoplasms in the body is suspected, a biochemical blood analysis is performed.
Treatment
The intervention regimen necessary for the treatment of back pain is selected individually. The main rule is that therapy should be comprehensive, including symptomatic treatment and lifestyle changes. Treatment is selected after the doctor determines the cause of the pain.
Regardless of the causes of back pain, all patients should follow these rules:
- do not lift heavy objects;
- bend and straighten your back when sitting;
- give up vigorous sports;
- if you are obese, you need to lose weight;
- change the place to sleep, make it comfortable;
- Performing regular minutes of physical education while sitting directly on a chair or couch;
- light sports;
- do not take a steam bath, do not visit a sauna, do not take a hot bath;
- wearing a support bandage (as prescribed by a doctor).
For diagnosed pathologies of the spine, the treatment complex also includes the following recommendations:
- Medicinal influence. The use of pain relievers, anti-inflammatories and decongestants is indicated. Medicines can be prescribed for oral administration and local use in the form of a pain-relieving cream, gel or ointment.
- Blockade of the middle region.
- Physiotherapy. Patients are prescribed physical therapy, massage, magnetic therapy and electrophoresis.
- Acupuncture, manual therapy, osteopathy.
In severe cases, when conservative intervention for spine pathologies does not give results, surgical intervention is performed.
The information in the article should not be used as a basis for self-diagnosis and treatment; it is provided for informational purposes only. You should not take any medicine without consulting a specialist.
Trying to figure out how to get rid of back pain and why your back hurts is almost futile. It can have a different nature, depending on which an effective method of influence is chosen. Self-medication for many pathologies is ineffective and dangerous, as it leads to a worsening of the condition.