Lumbar Sprain/Strain
The lumbar spine can be placed under exceedingly large loads. These loads can cause sprains to ligamentous tissue and strains to muscular tissue. These injuries often coexist and are aptly called musculoligamentous injuries. The severity of the injury is dependent upon the magnitude, direction, and persistence of the force in relation to the resilience of the tissues. (1) These injuries can come from a single event or from longer term overloading of the tissues. Differentiating sprains from strains is inconsequential since the treatment for both is the same.
Contributing factors to injury include muscular weakness or imbalance in the lumbar paraspinal muscles, hip adductors or deep abdominal wall, tightness in the hip flexors or hamstrings, smoking, history of surgery or pre-existing structural deformities.
Most people will experience back pain at some point in their lives and of those, 70% can attribute their pain to sprain/strain injuries. (2)
Due to the variety of mechanisms, the symptoms of a sprain/strain can range from mild to debilitating. Pain can start right after the injury, but typically slowly builds over hours to days. It is often described as vague, dull lower back pain that becomes sharp with movement. Movements like bending and twisting often make pain worse.
Since a third of low back pain patients will have persistent symptoms around 6 months and recurrence occurs in about half of low back pain patients, treatment focuses on changing patient function as well as symptom relief. (3,4,5) This combination technique includes using manipulation, massage, and other passive treatments to alleviate pain with active therapies like MDT, rehabilitation exercises, ergonomic and posture training to not only treat the condition but increase long term resilience of the tissues.
If you have an issue that you would like some guidance with, give us a call at (616) 301-1702.
Navar D, Zhou BH, Lu Y, Solomonow M. High repetition cyclic loading is a risk factor for a lumbar disorder. Muscle & Nerve: Official Journal of the American Association of Electrodiagnostic Medicine. 2006 Nov;34(5):614-22
Roudsari B, Jarvik JG. Lumbar spine MRI for low back pain: indications and yield. American Journal of Roentgenology. 2010 Sep;195(3):550-9.
Frymoyer JW. Back pain and sciatica. New England Journal of Medicine. 1988 Feb 4;318(5):291-300.
Carey TS, Garrett JM, Jackman A, Hadler N, The North Carolina Back Pain Project. Recurrence and care seeking after acute back pain: results of a long-term follow-up study. Medical care. 1999 Feb 1:157- 64.