TY - JOUR
T1 - Acute low back pain
T2 - Systematic review of its prognosis
AU - Pengel, Liset H M
AU - Herbert, Robert D.
AU - Maher, Chris G.
AU - Refshauge, Kathryn M.
PY - 2003/8/9
Y1 - 2003/8/9
N2 - Objectives: To describe the course of acute low back pain and sciatica and to identify clinically important prognostic factors for these conditions. Design: Systematic review. Data sources: Searches of Medline, Embase, Cinahl, and Science Citation Index, and iterative searches of bibliographies. Main outcome measures: Pain, disability, and return to work. Results: 15 studies of variable methodological quality were included. Rapid improvements in pain (mean reduction 58% of initial scores), disability (58%), and return to work (82% of those initially off work) occurred in one month. Further improvement was apparent until about three months. Thereafter levels for pain, disability, and return to work remained almost constant. 73% of patients had at least one recurrence within 12 months. Conclusions: People with acute low back pain and associated disability usually improve rapidly within weeks. None the less, pain and disability are typically ongoing, and recurrences are common.
AB - Objectives: To describe the course of acute low back pain and sciatica and to identify clinically important prognostic factors for these conditions. Design: Systematic review. Data sources: Searches of Medline, Embase, Cinahl, and Science Citation Index, and iterative searches of bibliographies. Main outcome measures: Pain, disability, and return to work. Results: 15 studies of variable methodological quality were included. Rapid improvements in pain (mean reduction 58% of initial scores), disability (58%), and return to work (82% of those initially off work) occurred in one month. Further improvement was apparent until about three months. Thereafter levels for pain, disability, and return to work remained almost constant. 73% of patients had at least one recurrence within 12 months. Conclusions: People with acute low back pain and associated disability usually improve rapidly within weeks. None the less, pain and disability are typically ongoing, and recurrences are common.
UR - http://www.scopus.com/inward/record.url?scp=0042133416&partnerID=8YFLogxK
M3 - Review article
C2 - 12907487
AN - SCOPUS:0042133416
SN - 0959-8146
VL - 327
SP - 323
EP - 325
JO - British Medical Journal
JF - British Medical Journal
IS - 7410
ER -