LOW BACK PAIN ?

OFFICE
SAFETY-
back pain is the most common and
costly musculoskeletal problem
affecting the working
workplace. Those jobs that entail a
significant degree of lifting, bending,
twisting, work
standardization and monotony,
sitting and standing correlate with
greater incidence of low back
• lives and is the leading cause of visits to the doctor. Low back pain is the
most prevalent cause of disability in people under age 45, $100 billion is
spent annually in the management of low back pain, with more than half of
that spent on surgical treatment.
• The lower back is a well designed construction of bone, muscle and
ligament. Your backbone (vertebral column) is actually a stack of more than
30 small bones called vertebrae. Together, they create a bony canal that
surrounds and protects your spinal cord. Small nerves enter and exit the
spinal canal through spaces in your vertebrae called the foramen.
• These vertebrae are held together by muscles, tendons and ligaments.
Between the vertebrae are discs, which act as "shock absorbers" and
prevent the vertebrae from hitting one another when you walk, run or jump.
They also allow your spine to twist, bend and extend. Since the lower back
is the hinge between the upper and lower body and carries most of your
weight, it is especially vulnerable to injury and is the site of most back pain.
When low back pain strikes, we become acutely aware of just
 Low Back Pain" is defined as a
common symptom of many
diseases

• affecting organs of the lower abdomen and

pelvis as well as the soft tissues and bones and
joints of
the spine.[9] Multiple causes, both in and around
the spine can contribute to the production of low
back pain. Back pain is a clinical manifestation
that can be caused by a variety of known
diseases
and morphologic changes.
• According to the National Safety Council's
1992 Accident Facts, back injuries are the
most
frequent of all disabling work injuries in the
United States. Thirty-one percent of all
workers'
 Several causes
• Several causes of low back pain have been identified.
•
• The most common diagnoses include
lumbosacral strain and sprain,

• postural low back pain,

• muscular insufficiency, sacroilitis, annular
tears, bulbing disc,

• degenerative spinal disease, or simply "low back syndrome".[10]

• The most
common cause of nonspecific low back pain is believed to be
degeneration of the in vertebral disc.
 Exercise and Physical Therapy
• Bed rest was once thought to be an effective treatment
for back pain? No
• Exercises to mobilize the back worked better than bed
rest. Subjects in the mobility test, who were encouraged
to continue normal activities and have no daytime rest,
appeared to have better back flexibility by the seventh
day than their immobile counterparts, who remained in
bed for the duration of the experiment.
• exercise should begin immediately.
• A. exercises which increase flexibility and tone and
strengthen muscles by hydrating disks that become
painful from loss of fluid.
• "Exercise can actually pump fluid back into the disk,
• " it is important to keep the patient moving so that the
disk remains fully hydrated."
 cause of the pain
• arthritis, congenital disorders, poor posture,
obesity, and psychological problems due to
stress can be the source of back pain.
• sprain the ligaments, strain the muscles,
rupture the disks, and irritate the joints.
• injuries from sports or traumatic accidents
as the cause of the pain,
• simplest of movements will have painful
results.
• Complicating the issue further is the fact that
back pain can also directly result from
internal problems such as kidney stones,
kidney infections, blood clots, or bone loss.
Drugs control pain? medication can
have side effects?
• Drugs work well to control pain and discomfort.
• But any medication can have side effects.
• Back pain experts say that over-the-counter, no steroidal anti-
inflammatory drugs), and ibuprofen (Nuprin, Motrin IB and
Advil)--can be of value in reducing the pain.
• More severe pain may require prescription medications.
•
• gastrointestinal bleeding, and advises that patients suffering
from other medical conditions need to consult with their doctors
• medication
• Example
• an increased risk for gastrointestinal bleeding and should have
your doctor prescribe medication that won't aggravate the ulcer
or cause any kind of drug interaction."
 Surgical Procedures

• Doctors recommend back surgery much less

often now than in the past, and only for certain
conditions do not improve after other
treatments have been tried

• Implantable spinal cord stimulation devices

are another aid in the management of chronic
pain of the trunk and limbs.

• These devices electrically stimulate the spinal

cord by discharging a one-time or continuous
stream of electrical pulses.
 Acupuncture
• Acupuncture is a centuries-old Chinese healing
technique that employs needles placed at specified
points on the body. acupuncture needles in 1996 as
medical devices for "general use" by trained
professionals.
• The needles are required to have proper labeling, and
good manufacturing practices must be followed.
• single use only" and provide information about device
material sterility and compatibility with the body.
• The needles must also bear a prescription label
restricting use to qualified practitioners as determined by
individual states.
 BACKGROUND
"high risk" industrial safety
• Physical Plant Workers who
perform various types of trade work including:
( overhead crane operator carpentry, plumbing,
electrical, painting,

• Because of the nature of their work,

• workers are considered
high risk" for accidents and, they account for over half of
all accidents occurring at the

• highest incidence of back injuries among all workers

•
Many of the back injuries occurring are caused by manual
lifting of material.