This is Steve Carroll and you're listening to the EM Basic podcast. Today we're going to talk about back pain.

Now before you start to groan and roll your eyes, just realize that this is a common reason for people come to the emergency department.

In the early days of EMRAP, Mel Herbert caught a ton of flack for doing a segment on back pain.

One person wondered if the chief complaint of Total Body DeLore was going to be the next topic. While the vast majority of back pain. One person wondered if the chief complaint of total body dolor was going to be

the next topic. While the vast majority of back pain that we see isn't serious, we need to find

those few people that have serious pathology. Today we'll go over how to take a really good

history on patients with back pain because it will guide the rest of our testing. We'll also go

over how to do a thorough physical exam,

how to form a good back pain differential,

how to selectively use labs and imaging,

and how to get your patients feeling better.

As always, this podcast doesn't represent the views or opinions of the Department of Defense,

the U.S. Army, or the Shawshack EM residency program.

So let's get started. As always, make sure to read the chart in the triage note.

Triage nurses are pretty good about asking about certain red flags like incontinence or leg

weakness, so the vast majority of triage notes will have mentioned in the lack of these signs.

Pay attention to the vital signs.

Pay particular attention to the blood pressure and pulse, Pay attention to the vital signs. Pay particular attention

to the blood pressure and pulse, as well as the patient's temperature. If any of these are way

out of whack, then you need to be extra concerned. Now, let's talk about how to take a good history

on a patient with back pain. One of the most important things to ask is what the patient was

doing when their back pain started.

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