What Factors May Increase a Patient’s Risk for Another Back Pain Episode?
Researchers conducted MRI scans on 76 patients who had an episode of back pain within the previous three months and followed them for a year in an effort to identify any factors that may indicate whether or not a patient may experience future back pain episodes. After comparing the MRI findings and case history of each patient who had a recurrent back pain episode with those who did not, the researchers found that patients with disk degeneration were 89% more likely to have another episode of back pain within the next twelve months when compared with patients without MRI-confirmed disk generation. For patients with a bulging disk, the risk for a recurrent episode was 84% greater than those without a disk bulge. They also found that each previous episode of back pain increases a patient’s risk for a future episode by 4%.
Spine Journal, July 2015