Case Studies

What is Lumbar Spine pain?

Low back pain can be caused by problems with the muscles, nerves, bones discs or tendons. Specific diagnosis is most often not as important as treating the symptoms themselves.

The Problem

Our client, a female in her 40’s, came to us following a very long history of low back pain with some referred pain into her leg. She was having difficulty with all activities of daily living, driving, walking, swimming and general normal day to day activities. She was very weak on any testing of her lower body / gluteals / trunk. She was very apprehensive and worried and generally feeling quite low and guarded. 

The Solution

We fully assessed her and a large amount of time was spent on education and advice about her pain. She had a lot of manual therapy on her low back consisting mostly of soft tissue work in this case but this can vary patient to patient. We then set up and provided her with a graduated core strength programme and also specific exercises for her which ease her pain. We adjusted her programme accordingly and progressed as we felt appropriate for her.

The Result

She is still making progress 4 weeks down the line but has hugely improved and is now back driving and swimming and is feeling more herself again.

We will monitor her pain and progress her programme as suitable.

Often, we do see patients who may not respond to physiotherapy, as well as we’d like them to and in this case we would refer on for further management to an appropriate consultant.