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The DOI matches its Crossref record; 4 of the 4 references it cites were found in a registry or an index.

Diagnosis and treatment of low back pain

Open access
Koes, B W, van Tulder, M W, Thomas, S·2006·BMJ

Abstract

Low back pain is a considerable health problem in all developed countries and is most commonly treated in primary healthcare settings. It is usually defined as pain, muscle tension, or stiffness localised below the costal margin and above the inferior gluteal folds, with or without leg pain (sciatica). The most important symptoms of non-specific low back pain are pain and disability. The diagnostic and therapeutic management of patients with low back pain has long been characterised by considerable variation within and between countries among general practitioners, medical specialists, and other healthcare professionals.1 2 w1 Recently, a large number of randomised clinical trials have been done, systematic reviews have been written, and clinical guidelines have become available. The outlook for evidence based management of low back pain has greatly improved. This review presents the current state of science regarding the diagnosis and treatment of low back pain. We used the Cochrane Library to identify relevant systematic reviews that evaluate the effectiveness of conservative, complementary, and surgical interventions. Medline searches were used to find other relevant systematic reviews on diagnosis and treatment of low back pain, with the keywords “low back pain”, “systematic review”, “meta-analysis”, “diagnosis”, and “treatment”. Our personal files were used for additional references. We also checked available clinical guidelines and used Clinical Evidence as source for clinically relevant information on benefits and harms of treatments.3 4 Most of us will experience at least one episode of low back pain during our life. Reported lifetime prevalence varies from 49% to 70% and point prevalences from 12% to 30% are reported in Western countries.w2 w3 The diagnostic process is mainly focused on the triage of patients with specific or non-specific low back pain. Specific low back pain is defined as symptoms caused by a specific pathophysiological mechanism, such …

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Metadata

Authors
Koes, B. W., van Tulder, M. W., & Thomas, S.
Venue
BMJ
Publisher
BMJ
Published
2006-06-15
Volume
332
Issue
7555
Pages
1430-1434
ISSN
  • 0007-1447 (ISSN-L)
  • 0959-8138
  • 1468-5833
OpenAlex
W2111887260
Cited by
1,279
References
4
FWCI
19.43
Type
journal article
Language
en
Open access
green

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CoChat. (2026). Citation check: Diagnosis and treatment of low back pain. https://app.cochat.ai/papers/10.1136/bmj.332.7555.1430
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Koes, B. W., van Tulder, M. W., & Thomas, S. (2006). Diagnosis and treatment of low back pain. BMJ. https://doi.org/10.1136/bmj.332.7555.1430

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Contains information from the Semantic Scholar Academic Graph Datasets, made available under the ODC Attribution License (ODC-BY 1.0).

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