LOW BACK ATHLETES AND TREATMENT APPROACHES

Abstract

Most people experience low back pain at some point in their lives. Even though exercise has a protective role against low back pain, some sports impose repeated excessive forces on the lumbar spine and the athlete experiences low back pain. There are many structures in the lumbosacral region that can be the source of low back pain. Pain from the injured tissue, somatic referred pain and sometimes radicular pain add up to each other, making accurate diagnosis difficult, and leading to a complexity of low back pain definitions. Although most low back pain patients significantly improve in a month, the difficulties in making accurate diagnosis also complicate the standardization of treatment guidelines. Definitions, evaluation, diagnosis and treatment modalities of low back pain are reviewed in this article, with an emphasis on the athletic population.