Assessing Musculoskeletal Pain Essay Assignment

Assessing Musculoskeletal Pain Essay Assignment

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2 more questions (please include in assignments)
1.Provide evidence from reliable sources to support diagnostic tests that would be appropriate.
2.List five different possible conditions for the patients differential diagnosis and justify why you selected each
4.Provide at least 3 references.
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Introduction

The case study is a 42-year-old male with a complaint of lower back pain for one month that sometimes radiates to his left leg.

Nerve roots involved in lower back pain and their tests

Radiculopathy refers to diseases of the nerves that occur due to the compression of the nerve roots. Lumbar radiculopathy also called sciatica occurs when it affects the lower back. The most involved nerve roots are those forming the sciatic nerve. Therefore, the nerve roots involved in lower back pain may include L4, L5, and S1 (Alexander & Varacallo, 2022). Testing for pathologies of S1 involves asking the patient to walk on their toes. This tests for planter flexion, which is a function of muscle innervated

by the tibial nerve (nerve roots L4-S3). Testing for L4 and L5 will involve asking the patient to walk on heels. If the patient feels pain then that nerve root is affected. Imaging studies to evaluate spinal conditions causing lower back pain include MRI and CT (Rao et al., 2018)Assessing Musculoskeletal Pain Essay Assignment . An MRI ill detect any problems such as disc herniation, stenosis, and other soft tissue abnormalities.

Other symptoms of L4-S1 involvement include numbness, weakness, and abnormal sensations such as tingling in the buttocks, thighs, legs, foot, and toes.

Differential Diagnoses for Acute Lower back pain:

  1. Lumbar disc herniation- disc herniation irritates the nerves affected resulting in lower back pain, which may radiate to the thighs and legs (Casiano et al., 2022).
  2. Lumbar Spondylosis- refers to degenerative arthritis that affects the spine and results in lower back pain, numbness, and tingling sensation in the legs and thighs.
  3. Spinal stenosis- This results in pressure on the nerves in the spine. It causes pain and muscle weakness among other symptoms.
  4. Spinal tumor metastases- metastatic tumors to the lumbar spine will lead to lower back pain through nerve compression. Assessing Musculoskeletal Pain Essay Assignment

Physical examination and Special maneuvers to perform: After inspection of the area, the physical examinations to conduct include examining the dorsiflexion of the ankle and big toes, checking the ankle reflexes, and sensation to light touch in the foot (Olafsen & Probst, 2019). A straight leg test is a maneuver done in patients with lower back pain to detect lumbosacral nerve root problems, caused by conditions such as disc herniation (Camino Willhuber & Piuzzi, 2022)Assessing Musculoskeletal Pain Essay Assignment. It is positive when the patient experiences pain with extension at about 30 degrees, along the areas of distribution of L5 or S1.

References

Alexander, C. E., & Varacallo M. (2022, May 1). Lumbosacral Radiculopathy – StatPearls – NCBI bookshelf. National Center for Biotechnology Information. https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/books/NBK430837/

Camino Willhuber, G. O., & Piuzzi, N. S. (2022, May 1). Straight leg raise test – StatPearls – NCBI bookshelf. National Center for Biotechnology Information. https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/books/NBK539717/

Casiano, V. E., Sarwan G., Dydyk, A. M., & Varacallo, M. (2022, February 22). Back pain – StatPearls – NCBI bookshelf. National Center for Biotechnology Information. https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/books/NBK538173/

Olafsen, N. P., & Probst, D. T. (2019). Lumbosacral Radiculopathy. McLean EMG Guide. https://doi.org/10.1891/9780826172136.0025

Rao, D., Scuderi, G., Scuderi, C., Grewal, R., & Sandhu, S. J. (2018). The use of imaging in management of patients with low back pain. Journal of Clinical Imaging Science8, 30. https://doi.org/10.4103/jcis.jcis_16_18 Assessing Musculoskeletal Pain Essay Assignment