Is Sacralization Associated with occurrence of Back pain - A Cross Sectional Study.

Abstract

Background: The sacralization of the lumbar vertebra could be one of the cause for back pain. Though the relationship between Lumbosacral Transitional Vertebrae and low back pain was described a century before several contrast findings were also noted in the literature. Hence this study was conducted to assess the impact of sacralization on low back pain. Methods: This retrospective cross-sectional investigation, which used lumbo-sacral X-rays taken at Sri Muthukumaran Medical College Hospital and Research Institute, was carried out in the orthopaedics department. The study contained 514 lumbrosacral X-rays in total. The Institutional Ethics Committee provided its ethical approval. Descriptive statistics, Chi square test was employed in SPSS version 19 to examine the relationship between sacralization and back discomfort. Results: Prevalence of sacralisation was 10.1% with predominant complete sacralisation. Strong association was noted between sacralisation and lower back pain however sacralisation was not associated with age, gender and BMI. Conclusion: As there is a association noted between sacralisation and back pain, early identification of LSTV could help in early lifestyle changes and routine exercise, which can help prevent additional issues including disc degeneration of the vertebrae above the LSTV.