Lumbar Spine and Back Pain

The aim of this text is to promote an understanding of the structure and function of the spine; what goes wrong; how lesions produce back pain; how to assess the severity of the problem; the relation of symptoms and disability to psychological factors; and the indications and values for various forms of treatment. No special attention has been paid to inflammatory causes of back pain such as ankylosing spondylitis as these do not present the same conceptual problems and the objectives of treatment are relatively well defined. All the chapters have been brought up to date in this edition and the scope of problems covered has been expanded.