Painful Spinal Conditions in Young Children and Adolescents

Rahul Tyagi

doi:10.4172/2469-6684.100018

Abstract

There are numerous etiologies of back pain in the pediatric population. Most of the children experiencing the back pain who are seen in orthopaedic outpatient need careful evaluation of underlying biomechanical and musculoskeletal cause. Nevertheless, other causes like rheumatic, infectious or oncologic etiology need to be considered. This research explores evaluation, differential diagnoses, and diagnosis of back pain in young children. Back pain in children, adolescents and young adults is less common that in mature adults. One of the pertinent issues in the determination of the incidence and prevalence of the lower back pain in ways that, it is defined. Low back pain may be defined as the low back pain with no clinical cause, non-organic and non-specific pain. It is normally used as a descriptive term for different types of back pain. Mechanical pain is also a confusing term that refers to pain without the pathological underlying cause but is conversely used to explain conditions that arise from trauma or overuse such as the intervertebral disc prolapse, muscle pain or spondylolysis. Over the years, back pain has been considered as a sinister presentation within the young age group. Present studies now show that there are many children who experience back pain, but there are very few of them who seek medical intervention mainly because they think it’s normal. When assessing adolescents and children with back pain, it is essential to consider social factors, psychological and lifestyle, because spinal pain does not mean that the child has a spinal disease. Additionally, it is important to consider critical underlying conditions and perform the required investigations to describe these causes without over-investigating the patients with non-specific musculoskeletal pain.

Highlights

Painful spinal conditions are less common in children and young adolescents than in adults
Back pain has always been considered a sinister presentation in the young age group, some studies have shown that there are many children who experience back pain in the absence of any underlying conditions
Most common type of back pain in childhood is the low back pain and there is a small chance of recurrence with increased intensity [1]

Summary

Introduction

Painful spinal conditions are less common in children and young adolescents than in adults. Back pain has always been considered a sinister presentation in the young age group, some studies have shown that there are many children who experience back pain in the absence of any underlying conditions. The prevalence of back pain in young children during the young age is more common [3]. There are health experts who recommend radiographic imaging after every three months for the nontraumatic back pain. Magnetic resonance imaging is an important modality for evaluation of detailed anatomy, joint inflammation and soft tissues without radiation [4]. The bone scan includes radiation but helpful in the diagnosis of inflammation sites close to the open physis that may be hard to evaluate by other mean [6]. Uric acid and lactic dehydrogenase are important when the health expert is suspicious of the malignancy being present [7]

Differential Diagnosis

Infectious causes

Juvenile idiopathic arthritis

Findings

Conclusion