Back pain is extremely common and usually not a medical emergency.
But some serious causes of back pain do warrant a trip to the emergency room.
It also covers when you seek immediate medical care.
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Osteomyelitis
Osteomyelitis is an infection of the bone.
When bones in the back are involved, it can cause back pain.
Epidural Abscess
Epidural abscesses are rare but serious problem.
It can lead to permanent nervous system damage or even death.
An abscess is a collection of pus from an infection.
Causes include:
The abscess can lead to spinal cord compression.
Typical treatment involves:
Early treatment makes a positive outcome more likely.
The odds of permanent damage and death increase sharply once weakness, paralysis, or sensation changes begin.
Get immediate medical attention if you have symptoms of an epidural abscess.
It may include:
The outcomes of cancer treatment have improved significantly.
The sooner you start treatment, the better your odds are for beating cancer.
About 15% of people with Lyme disease develop this condition, which is calledneuroborreliosis.
Lyme disease is brought on by a bacteria that’s transmitted through tick bites.
Varied Color of the Rash
On light-colored skin, erythema migrans is pink or red.
It can be in either the spinal cord or the arteries that supply the spinal cord with blood.
Like typical strokes, SCIs are due to a buildup of plaque in arteries (atherosclerosis).
Causes and risk factors for this buildup include:
Some people have abnormal blood vessels that are calledvascular malformations.
They may predispose you to an SCI.
It often involves physical and/or occupational therapy.
It often begins after:
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They may include:
It is possible to die from GBS, so treatment is important.
Call 911 or go to the emergency room if you notice:
GBS can’t be cured.
Treatment can lower your symptom load, treat complications, and help you recover faster.
Treatment may include:
Most people will spontaneously begin to recover between 2 and 3 weeks after symptoms begin.
That inflammation is called myelitis.
Transversemeans going across something.
Other symptoms include:
It causes inflammation to develop in a matter of hours or weeks.
Symptoms may be on one side only or on both sides.
Anyone can get transverse myelitis.
The other 60% are believed to be sparked by inflammatory activity.
They may include:
Most people at least partially recover from transverse myelitis.
Most of the recovery generally takes place in the first three months.
Some people recover fully, but it usually takes months or even years.
Others have permanent impairments that may limit their functionality.
It’s possible to have only one episode or to have periodic recurrences.
Call 911 or go to an emergency room if you have symptoms that suggest transverse myelitis.
This is calledreferred pain.
Anyone with those symptoms should go to an emergency room immediately.
It’s important to remember thesecauses of back painare relatively rare.
Millions of people have back pain from more common causes.
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BMJ Best Practice.Spial epidural abscess.
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World Health Organization.Early cancer diagnosis saves lives, cuts treatment costs.
National Institute for Neurological Disorders and Stroke.Low back pain fact sheet.
Halperin JJ.Chronic Lyme disease: Misconceptions and challenges for patient management.Infect Drug Resist.
2015;8:119128. doi:10.2147/IDR.S66739
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Centers for Disease Control and Prevention.Chronic symptoms and lyme disease.
National Institute of Neurological Disorders and Stroke.Spinal cord infarction.
Centers for Disease Control and Prevention.Guillain-Barre syndrome.
National Institute of Neurological Disorders and Stroke.Transverse myelitis.
Johns Hopkins Medicine.Transverse myelitis
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Ropper AH, Samuels MA, Klein J et al.
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