Approach to lower back pain.

Lower back pain is one of the most common symptoms–and the most common musculoskeletal problem–seen by general practitioners. Iti s also a common cause of disability and an expensive condition in terms of economic impact because of absenteeism. This article discusses an approach to this common symptom and how to distinguish the benign, mechanical type of back pain from the more sinister, but less frequently encountered, inflammatory back pain.