Challenging Cases in Back and Low Back Pain

PREFACE. The importance of initial management of back pain is crucial as it affects the patient’s future. Initial diagnosis is highly important in orientating the patient and in correlating the available therapeutic means to the expected results. This clinical handbook presents a series of cases of back pain due to different etiologies, from the most frequent to the more rare pathologies. The choice of presenting this broad topic under the form of clinical cases is to provide the reader with a compilation of “everyday cases” on various aspects related to back pain, addressing issues like etiology, presentation, clues to diagnosis and management options. Moreover, we decided to keep a mix of adult and pediatric orthopedics pathologies as not everywhere in the world pediatric and adult specialties are practiced independently. The informations contained in this clinical hand book are derived from the valuable experience of over 50 authors and co-authors from 14 countries of four continents and we hope this format will help the reader at the critical junctures to which decisions must be made. This work would not exist without their effort, diligence and commitment. I would like to thank Shveta Dhamija Khera and Tarun Choudhry who have put in many hours of skilled work in pulling this project together. This clinical handbook is an opportunity for every physicians dealing with patients with back pain, to obtain an update on actual trends and knowledge in the #eld in a book - this is our hope - user-friendly, handy and easy to read. We hope you enjoy and bene#t from “Challenging Cases in Back and Low Back Pain”. Federico Canavese Clermont Ferrand, France