Table of ContentsView AllTable of ContentsOsteomyelitisEpidural AbscessCancerLyme DiseaseSpinal Cord InfarctionGuillain-Barré SyndromeTransverse Myelitis
Table of ContentsView All
View All
Table of Contents
Osteomyelitis
Epidural Abscess
Cancer
Lyme Disease
Spinal Cord Infarction
Guillain-Barré Syndrome
Transverse Myelitis
Back pain is extremely common and usually not a medical emergency. But some serious causes of back pain do warrant a trip to the emergency room. These include:
This article goes over the causes, symptoms, risk factors, and treatments for serious causes of back pain. It also covers when you seek immediate medical care.
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Osteomyelitis is an infection of the bone. When bones in the back are involved, it can cause back pain. It’s usually due to:
Symptoms include:
You’re more likely to develop osteomyelitis if you have any of the following risk factors:
Treatment involves:
Get medical attention quickly if you:
With prompt treatment, the outcome is often good.
Epidural abscesses are rare but serious problem. It can lead to permanent nervous system damage or even death.
An abscess is a collection of pus from an infection. The epidural space is the area between your vertebrae (bones of the spine) and a membrane called the dura mater.
Causes include:
The abscess can lead to spinal cord compression. Symptoms include:
Depending on the location, additional symptoms may be:
Without prompt treatment, you may develop complications such as:
You have a higher risk of epidural abscess if you have:
The treatment goals are to cure the infection and prevent permanent damage. Typical treatment involves:
Early treatment makes a positive outcome more likely. The odds of permanent damage and death increase sharply once weakness, paralysis, or sensation changes begin.
Get immediate medical attention if you have symptoms of an epidural abscess.
Many types of cancer can invade the spine and cause back pain, usually due to compression from tumors.The cancer may start:
Symptoms of spinal cancer, which are mostly related to nerve compression, include:
If any of these symptoms start abruptly,seek emergency medical care.
You may be at heightened risk if you’ve had:
Cancer treatments depend on many factors, including the tumor’s type and location. It may include:
The outcomes of cancer treatment have improved significantly. Your healthcare provider can tell you what your prognosis is based on the specifics of your cancer and overall health.
About 80% of American adults will suffer from back pain at some point.Common causes include a muscle injury,herniated disc, or degenerative disease in the spine.
Back pain is a common early symptom of Lyme disease that’s invaded the nervous system. About 15% of people with Lyme disease develop this condition, which is calledneuroborreliosis.
Erythema migrans spreads in a circular or oval pattern and often takes on a bullseye appearance, with a large discolored ring, a skin-tone ring, and a solid circle in the middle.
Varied Color of the RashOn light-colored skin, erythema migrans is pink or red. On a Black or dark brown person, it may be simply raised, slightly darker than the skin, or purplish.
Varied Color of the Rash
On light-colored skin, erythema migrans is pink or red. On a Black or dark brown person, it may be simply raised, slightly darker than the skin, or purplish.
You’re at heightened risk of contracting Lyme disease if you:
Most people recover fully from Lyme disease, but a small percentage develop a longer-lasting form called post-treatment Lyme disease, which may last for up to six months and causes symptoms like joint and nerve pain (neuropathy).
A spinal cord infarction (SCI) is a type of stroke that, unlike typical strokes, occurs outside of the brain. It can be in either the spinal cord or the arteries that supply the spinal cord with blood.
Some people have abnormal blood vessels that are calledvascular malformations. They may predispose you to an SCI.
Symptoms of an SCI include:
Treatment of a spinal cord infarction is aimed at managing symptoms and regaining functionality lost to weakness or paralysis. It often involves physical and/or occupational therapy.
Guillain-Barrésyndrome (GBS) is an autoimmune disease in which your immune system damages your nerves.Mistaking them for a virus or bacterium, your body makes special cells called antibodies to destroy your nerve cells.
It often begins after:
Don’t Skip Vaccinations!While you may be tempted to skip a vaccination that may trigger GBS, it’s important to know that your risk of GBS is higher after having the flu than after getting the flu vaccine.
Don’t Skip Vaccinations!
While you may be tempted to skip a vaccination that may trigger GBS, it’s important to know that your risk of GBS is higher after having the flu than after getting the flu vaccine.
GBS is a rare disease that’s most common in:
Symptoms of GBS can progress over a period as short as a few hours or as long as a few weeks. They may include:
It is possible to die from GBS, so treatment is important. Call 911 or go to the emergency room if you notice:
GBS can’t be cured. Treatment can lower your symptom load, treat complications, and help you recover faster. Treatment may include:
Most people will spontaneously begin to recover between 2 and 3 weeks after symptoms begin. It may take weeks or years to fully recover, and some nerve damage may remain.The faster symptoms begin to go away, the better the outcome generally is.
Transverse myelitisis an uncommon condition that involves inflammation of the spinal cord, which transmits signals between the brain and nerves. That inflammation is called myelitis.
Transversemeans going across something. In this condition, it refers to a band-like sensation across your torso that includes sensory changes below the band. Other symptoms include:
It causes inflammation to develop in a matter of hours or weeks. Symptoms may be on one side only or on both sides.
Triggers for this condition may include:
Treatments generally are aimed at stopping the underlying infection, reducing inflammation, and managing symptoms. They may include:
Most people at least partially recover from transverse myelitis. Most of the recovery generally takes place in the first three months.
Some people recover fully, but it usually takes months or even years. Others have permanent impairments that may limit their functionality.
It’s possible to have only one episode or to have periodic recurrences.
Call 911 or go to an emergency room if you have symptoms that suggest transverse myelitis.
Referred PainSometimes, back pain comes from another region of the body and doesn’t involve problems in the back at all. This is calledreferred pain. Pancreatitis and aortic dissection (a tear in a major blood vessel of the heart) both can cause referred back pain.
Referred Pain
Sometimes, back pain comes from another region of the body and doesn’t involve problems in the back at all. This is calledreferred pain. Pancreatitis and aortic dissection (a tear in a major blood vessel of the heart) both can cause referred back pain.
Summary
Any time back pain is associated with new weakness or changes in bladder or bowel control, it’s a sign that the nerves in the spinal cord may be seriously injured. Anyone with those symptoms should go to an emergency room immediately.
It’s important to remember thesecauses of back painare relatively rare. Millions of people have back pain from more common causes. Even so, these diseases are so serious that it’s important for you and your healthcare provider to consider them.
Blood Tests for Diagnosing Back Pain
19 SourcesVerywell Health uses only high-quality sources, including peer-reviewed studies, to support the facts within our articles. Read oureditorial processto learn more about how we fact-check and keep our content accurate, reliable, and trustworthy.MedlinePlus.Osteomyelitis.Johns Hopkins Medicine.Epidural abscess.BMJ Best Practice.Spial epidural abscess.MedlinePlus.Epidural abscess.Johns Hopkins Medicine.Spinal cancer and spinal tumors.American Cancer Society.Risk factors for brain and spinal cord tumors.American Cancer Society.If you’re an adult with a brain or spinal cord tumor.World Health Organization.Early cancer diagnosis saves lives, cuts treatment costs.National Institute for Neurological Disorders and Stroke.Low back pain fact sheet.Halperin JJ.Chronic Lyme disease: Misconceptions and challenges for patient management.Infect Drug Resist. 2015;8:119–128. doi:10.2147/IDR.S66739Centers for Disease Control and Prevention.Lyme disease.Centers for Disease Control and Prevention.Chronic symptoms and lyme disease.National Institute of Neurological Disorders and Stroke.Spinal cord infarction.Cedars Sinai.Atherosclerosis.Centers for Disease Control and Prevention.Guillain-Barré syndrome.Mount Sinai.Guillain-Barré syndrome.National Institute of Neurological Disorders and Stroke.Transverse myelitis.Johns Hopkins Medicine.Transverse myelitisHospital for Special Surgery.An overview of lower back pain.Additional ReadingRopper AH, Samuels MA, Klein J et al. Adams and Victor’s Principles of Neurology 11th Edition. McGraw-Hill Education / Medical.
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Verywell Health uses only high-quality sources, including peer-reviewed studies, to support the facts within our articles. Read oureditorial processto learn more about how we fact-check and keep our content accurate, reliable, and trustworthy.MedlinePlus.Osteomyelitis.Johns Hopkins Medicine.Epidural abscess.BMJ Best Practice.Spial epidural abscess.MedlinePlus.Epidural abscess.Johns Hopkins Medicine.Spinal cancer and spinal tumors.American Cancer Society.Risk factors for brain and spinal cord tumors.American Cancer Society.If you’re an adult with a brain or spinal cord tumor.World Health Organization.Early cancer diagnosis saves lives, cuts treatment costs.National Institute for Neurological Disorders and Stroke.Low back pain fact sheet.Halperin JJ.Chronic Lyme disease: Misconceptions and challenges for patient management.Infect Drug Resist. 2015;8:119–128. doi:10.2147/IDR.S66739Centers for Disease Control and Prevention.Lyme disease.Centers for Disease Control and Prevention.Chronic symptoms and lyme disease.National Institute of Neurological Disorders and Stroke.Spinal cord infarction.Cedars Sinai.Atherosclerosis.Centers for Disease Control and Prevention.Guillain-Barré syndrome.Mount Sinai.Guillain-Barré syndrome.National Institute of Neurological Disorders and Stroke.Transverse myelitis.Johns Hopkins Medicine.Transverse myelitisHospital for Special Surgery.An overview of lower back pain.Additional ReadingRopper AH, Samuels MA, Klein J et al. Adams and Victor’s Principles of Neurology 11th Edition. McGraw-Hill Education / Medical.
Verywell Health uses only high-quality sources, including peer-reviewed studies, to support the facts within our articles. Read oureditorial processto learn more about how we fact-check and keep our content accurate, reliable, and trustworthy.
MedlinePlus.Osteomyelitis.Johns Hopkins Medicine.Epidural abscess.BMJ Best Practice.Spial epidural abscess.MedlinePlus.Epidural abscess.Johns Hopkins Medicine.Spinal cancer and spinal tumors.American Cancer Society.Risk factors for brain and spinal cord tumors.American Cancer Society.If you’re an adult with a brain or spinal cord tumor.World Health Organization.Early cancer diagnosis saves lives, cuts treatment costs.National Institute for Neurological Disorders and Stroke.Low back pain fact sheet.Halperin JJ.Chronic Lyme disease: Misconceptions and challenges for patient management.Infect Drug Resist. 2015;8:119–128. doi:10.2147/IDR.S66739Centers for Disease Control and Prevention.Lyme disease.Centers for Disease Control and Prevention.Chronic symptoms and lyme disease.National Institute of Neurological Disorders and Stroke.Spinal cord infarction.Cedars Sinai.Atherosclerosis.Centers for Disease Control and Prevention.Guillain-Barré syndrome.Mount Sinai.Guillain-Barré syndrome.National Institute of Neurological Disorders and Stroke.Transverse myelitis.Johns Hopkins Medicine.Transverse myelitisHospital for Special Surgery.An overview of lower back pain.
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Johns Hopkins Medicine.Epidural abscess.
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Centers for Disease Control and Prevention.Lyme disease.
Centers for Disease Control and Prevention.Chronic symptoms and lyme disease.
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Johns Hopkins Medicine.Transverse myelitis
Hospital for Special Surgery.An overview of lower back pain.
Ropper AH, Samuels MA, Klein J et al. Adams and Victor’s Principles of Neurology 11th Edition. McGraw-Hill Education / Medical.
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