A Study Of Patients With Low Back Pain Who Underwent Surgical Treatment

Abstract

Back pain is known as an important cause of debilitation of the working adult population in all countries, especially industrialized nations. Cigarette smoking and strenuous physical activity are recognized factors involved in the etiology of the back pain syndrome. Identification of risk factors of back pain can assist the physicians in taking preventive measures and rehabilitating patients. This 7-year study deals with some of the risk factors of back pain. This is a seven-year study of 450 patients with back pain who ultimately underwent surgical treatment. Demographic factors such as age, gender, occupation and type of physical activity (including jobs which require strenuous activity, clerical jobs and those which involve long standing hours) were classified and studied. The established diagnoses of patients which had been confirmed by surgical and pathological findings were extracted from their medical records. Data were analyzed using SPSS software. 450 patients were studied. 58.2 of patients were men and 41.8% were women (1.3:1). 40% of patients were aged between 21 and 40 and 36% were aged between 41 and 60 years. Only 24% of patients were over 60 and below 20 years of age. 29.4% of patients were laborers or porters, 8.2% had jobs with long working hours and 25.5% had clerical jobs. In this study the cause of patient referral was intervertebral disc hernia in 53.3% of cases, spinal stenosis in 12.6% of cases, trauma in 11.1% of cases and spinal column in 10% of cases. 76% of patients in this study were aged between 20 and 60 years, most of whom were men, at the height of their physical activity. Given the similarity of findings of this study and those of other studies, it is recommended that the risk of back pain be more precisely identified and that suitable jobs be chosen for different individuals accordingly, in an effort to reduce the incidence of the debilitating complications of back pain.