Stuff Flashcards
What 3 categories do doctors describe lower back pain by?
Acute - less than 5 weeks
Sub-acute 5 weeks to 3 months
Chronic - more than 3 months
What is a muscle spasm?
A muscle spasm is an involuntary contraction of a muscle that can cause a great deal of pain. Muscle spasms can occur in and of themselves because of an intrinsic issue with the muscle, but more commonly occur because of an underlying condition.
What is Cauda Equina Syndrome?
Cauda equina syndrome occurs when the cauda equina, a bundle of nerve fibers at the bottom of the spinal cord, becomes irritated by pressure or inflammation.
What is Foot Drop?
The inability to keep the toes up when walking resulting in clumsiness.
Foot drop is the inability to dorsiflex the foot - so, to pull the foot up. Now, foot drop itself is not a disease, it’s a sign of an underlying pathologic process. It can be caused by muscle spasms in the calf or a lack of communication between the nerve and muscles. Often times the result of radiculopathy in the L5 nerve root.
What two basic ways can the spine cause leg pain?
When the structures become painful they can refer pain down to the leg and the irritation of a nerve root within the spine.
The first is referral pain from structures within the spine itself, such as the disc, facet joint, sacroiliac joint. Structures that can become painful can also refer pain down into the leg. That pain tends to be more dull, deep, vague, achy. The way that we usually think about pain coming from the spine into the leg is more radiating, electric, burning pain. This comes from irritation of the nerve root within the spine.
What is neuropathic pain?
Neuropathic pain is an actual pathology of the nerve itself.
Nerve consists of its body, which is the axon, which is the part that usually gets injured and when that axon is injured what happens is abnormal transmission of impulses. It’s important to remember that it’s not nerves communicating an injury elsewhere, but the process in the nerves themselves.
