Back Pain and Spine

•Up to 80% of people will suffer from back pain during their lives, while 50% of the working population will experience incapacitating back pain at least once a year.

•Back pain is one of the most common reasons for workplace sick-leave, and back pain is the second most frequent reason for visits to the doctor’s office, outnumbered only by the ‘common cold’.

•Approximately 200,000 people in the US live with a disability related to spinal cord injury.

•Spinal cord injuries cost the US an estimated $9.7 billion each year. Pressure sores alone, a common complication, cost an estimated $1.2 billion.

Recent publications

From the Lancet Low Back Pain Group

A collaboration of more than 30 leading experts in countries across the world, including Professor Nadine Foster, Keele University and Professor Martin Underwood, Warwick University, have reviewed the evidence for treatment of low back pain and have published their results in a series of three papers in the Lancet, the first of which was published in the Lancet Wednesday 21st March 2018; you will be able to access country specific facts and statistics along with patient case studies.

Low back pain : a call for action. Buchbinder R et al; Lancet 2018; 391: 2384–88

What low back pain is and why we need to pay attention. Hartvigsen J et al; Lancet 2018; 391: 2356–67

Prevention and treatment of low back pain : evidence, challenges, and promising directions. Foster N et al; Lancet 2018; 391: 2368–83

From the Clobal Spine Care Initiatives Group

A series of 16 publications have been published in a supplement of the European Spine Journal, September 2018. This was a 4 year initiative, led by Dr Scott Haldeman, which involved numerous individuals as well as a large delphi group. It is hoped that this series of papers will help to raise awareness of the burden of spine conditions and in particular, the challenges faced for people living in low-and middle-income communities and the providers/systems that support spine services in these settings.

1. Acaroglu E, Mmopelwa T, Yuksel S, Ayhan S, Nordin M, Randhawa. K et al (2017) The Global Spine Care Initiative: a consensus process to develop and validate a stratification scheme for surgical care of spinal disorders as a guide for improved resource utilization in low- and middle-income communities. Eur Spine J. https://doi.org/10.1007/s0058 6-017-5332-z

2. Acaroglu E, Nordin M, Randhawa K, Chou R, Cote P, Mmopelwa T et al (2018) The Global Spine Care Initiative: a summary of guidelines on invasive interventions for the management of persistent and disabling spinal pain in low- and middle-income communities. Eur Spine J. https ://doi.org/10.1007/s0058 6-017-5392-0

3. Ameis A, Randhawa K, Yu H, Cote P, Haldeman S, Chou R et al (2017) The Global Spine Care Initiative: a review of reviews and recommendations for the non-invasive management of acute osteoporotic vertebral compression fracture pain in low- and middle-income communities. Eur Spine J. https ://doi.org/10.1007/s0058 6-017-5273-6

4. Cedraschi C, Nordin M, Haldeman S, Randhawa K, Kopansky-Giles D, Johnson CD et al (2018) The Global Spine Care Initiative: a narrative review of psychological and social issues in back pain in low- and middle-income communities. Eur Spine J. https://doi.org/10.1007/s0058 6-017-5434-7

5. Chou R, Cote P, Randhawa K, Torres P, Yu H, Nordin M et al (2018) The Global Spine Care Initiative: applying evidence-based guidelines on the non-invasive management of back and neck pain to low- and middle-income communities. Eur Spine J. https ://doi.org/10.1007/s0058 6-017-5433-8

6. Green BN, Johnson CD, Haldeman S, Kane EJ, Clay MB, Griffith E et al (2018) The Global Spine Care Initiative: public health and prevention interventions for common spine disorders in low- and middle-income communities. Eur Spine J. https ://doi.org/10.1007/s0058 6-018-5635-8

7. Haldeman S, Johnson CD, Chou R, Nordin M, Côté P, Hurwitz EL et al (2018) The Global Spine Care Initiative: classification system for spine-related concerns. Eur Spine J. https ://doi.org/10.1007/s0058 6-018-5724-8

8. Haldeman S, Johnson CD, Chou R, Nordin M, Côté P, Hurwitz EL et al (2018) The Global Spine Care Initiative: care pathway for people with spine-related concerns. Eur Spine J. https ://doi.org/10.1007/s0058 6-018-5721-y

9. Haldeman S, Nordin M, Chou R, Côté P, Hurwitz EL, Johnson CD, Randhawa K et al (2018) The Global Spine Care Initiative: World Spine Care executive summary on reducing spine-related disability in low- and middle-income communities. Eur Spine J. https ://doi.org/10.1007/s0058 6-018-5722-x

10. Hurwitz EL, Randhawa K, Torres P, Yu H, Verville L, Hartvigsen J et al (2017) The Global Spine Care Initiative: a systematic review of individual and community-based burden of spinal disorders in rural populations in low- and middle-income communities. Eur Spine J. https ://doi.org/10.1007/s0058 6-017-5393-z

11. Hurwitz EL, Randhawa K, Yu H, Cote P, Haldeman S (2018)The Global Spine Care Initiative: a summary of the global burden of low back and neck pain studies. Eur Spine J. https ://doi.org/10.1007/s0058 6-017-5432-9

12. Johnson CD, Haldeman S, Nordin M, Chou R, Côté P, Hurwitz EL et al (2018) The Global Spine Care Initiative: methodology, contributors, and disclosures. Eur Spine J. https ://doi.org/10.1007/s0058 6-018-5723-9