Low back pain can be due to many things. The most common conditions I treat are listed below.

Can’t Walk Very Far Without Pain or Numbness in Legs. This is usually doe to a condition called Lumbar Spinal Stenosis. Please click on that topic in the Home Page.

Severe, Disabling Back and/or Leg Pain. This is usually due to a herniated lumbar disc. Please click on that topic in the Home Page.

Lower Back Pain Only – usually not a herniated disc. Could be a condition called spondylolisthesis. That term means a breaking up of parts of a vertebra to allow one vertebra to slip on the other (spondylo = spine + listhesis = broken up). It can be congenital, due to a stress fracture, or due to degeneration in a facet joint. It is often, but not always unstable and may require a fusion operation. See also the topic Lumbar Spinal Stenosis on the Home Page.

Lower Back and Leg Pain, Not Disabling. It could be due to a herniated disc, localized spinal stenosis, mild spondylolisthesis, or a synovial cyst. :Please click on the topic Synovial Cyst on the Home Page for more information on that.

Acute Lower Back Pain. Some of the worrisome conditions, besides disc problems, include osteoporosis with compression fracture, osteomyelitis (infection) of the spine, spinal abscess, tumors invading the spine, either benign or malignant, and others.