Does Lower Back Ache Indicate Possible Arthritis And What Is The Treatment?

Posted on Mon, 2 Dec 2013

Medically reviewed by Ask A Doctor - 24x7 Medical Review Team

Sun, 1 Dec 2013 Answered on

Tue, 31 Dec 2013 Last reviewed on

Question : I do not want a precise answer. Just a probability or suggestion for experiment. I mentioned this to you earlier. I sprained my lower back 2 weeks ago by a freak movement putting something in my pocket. I can walk, drive and am comfortable sitting or lying down. I have pain medicine. The problem is that the pain in my lower back is so bad when I get up from a lying position that I am attempting to sleep sitting up. My doctor here took x-rays and found only "arthritis". I would like only your opinion of the possibilities of what I might expect in the future. Also any suggestions medical or non medical.

Answered by Dr. Sudhir Kumar (3 days later)

Brief Answer: We need to exclude a disc prolapse Detailed Answer: Hi, Thank you for posting your query. I have noted your symptoms. I agree that you may have arthritis, as suggested by your doctor. However, in view of your symptoms, and the mechanism of onset of pain, we need to exclude a lumbar disc disease, causing pinched nerve in the lower back. This can be confirmed or excluded by doing an MRI scan of the lumbo-sacral spine. I hope my reply has helped you. I would be pleased to answer, if you have any follow up queries or if you require any further information. Best wishes, Dr Sudhir Kumar MD (Internal Medicine), DM (Neurology) XXXXXXX Consultant Neurologist Apollo Hospitals, Hyderabad, For DIRECT QUERY to me: http://bit.ly/Dr-Sudhir-kumar My blog: http://bestneurodoctor.blogspot.com/

Above answer was peer-reviewed by : Dr. Chakravarthy Mazumdar