Musculoskeletal system >>>> How not to confuse lumbago with sciatica?
How not to confuse lumbago with sciatica?
If, when lifting weights, sharp bends or twists of the body, acute pain in the lower back occurs, then we can talk about lumbago syndrome.
The causes of lumbago are varied, but most often the cause of sharp shooting pains is associated with rheumatic diseases that are similar in clinical symptoms (for example, sciatica). But this is a mistake, since the causes of lumbago lie in overstrain, sharp stretching (or overheating, followed by hypothermia) of the muscle tissue of the lower back and lumbo-dorsal fascia. Sometimes lumbago can occur due to an acute infection that causes inflammation of muscle fibers or due to osteofibrosis, a pathological transformation of bone tissue into connective tissue.
Signs of lumbago make themselves felt with sudden back pain, aggravated by changes in body position and limiting movement in the lumbar region. Coughing, sneezing, and laughing also cause pain. The person freezes in a forced position with the torso tilted forward. It is especially difficult to get up from a sitting or lying position. At rest, the pain subsides. On palpation, thickening, induration and tension are observed in the muscles of the lumbar spine. Sometimes nodules are felt in the muscle tissue, which represent a deformation of the muscle tissue. Lumbago pain lasts from several days to one to three weeks.
A pain symptom at home with lumbago can be removed by warming up (dry heat) with bags of salt, mustard plasters, pepper plaster, and a heating pad. Rubbing and massaging will also ease the condition. Anti-inflammatory and analgesic ointments and gels (Fastum-gel, Nurofen, Nise, Voltaren, etc.) help well. For particularly debilitating pain, injections of painkillers are made subcutaneously into the lumbar region. With lumbago, physiotherapy has a good effect: Bernard currents, UHF currents, hydromassage, vibration massage.
With the development of an attack of lumbago, bed rest, limitation of physical activity is necessary. When the acute period passes, it is necessary to carry out prevention of subsequent possible attacks, for which exercises are done to stretch the muscles of the lower back at a slow pace, without sudden movements and jerks (turns of the body to the right and left, slow bends forward - sideways).
Read
Read
