A release from the Institute of Medicine describes a major report on the future of pain management, recommending that generalists should handle most pain patients while pain specialists limit themselves to the most complex ones.

A larger amount of fat is associated with high levels of low back pain intensity and disability, according to a study published in Spine.

The full-endoscopic interlaminar bilateral decompression with a unilateral approach is sufficient and safe as an alternative to traditional procedures for patients with spinal stenosis, according to a study published in Spine.

Gunner Andersson, MD, a surgeon at Midwest Orthopaedics at Rush, was recently featured in an ABC news story investigating massage therapy for people with chronic low back pain, according to a practice news release.

Physicians can use tests to distinguish lower back pain patients from healthy patients through biomechanical analysis of everyday tasks, according to a report published in Spine.

Donald S. Corenman, MD, DC, a spine surgeon at The Steadman Clinic in Vail, Colo., recently published a for patients with back pain titled Everything You Want to Know About the Back, according to a news release.

Richard A. Kaul, MD, founder of New Jersey Spine and Rehabilitation in Pomptom Lakes, recently launched a program called Project Backbone, which provides free consultation, pain management intervention and minimally invasive spine surgery to veterans of the recent military action in Iraq and Afghanistan. He discusses five points on treating military veterans.

Hospital-based multidisciplinary intervention may not be better than brief intervention to increase return to work and improve health in patients with low back pain, according to a study published in Spine.

Prior to 1950, sacroiliac joint dysfunction was thought the predominant cause of back pain. Post-1950, physicians have been more focused on the disc as the cause for back pain, which has led to several advances in that area of spine surgery. However, the decreased awareness of sacro-iliac dysfunction has lead to cases of misdiagnosis of SI joint dysfunction as discogenic back pain or sciatica.

"There are a few different studies recently about sacroiliac joint dysfunction showing that it affects about 25 percent of adults with low back pain," says Richard Kube, MD, a spine surgeon with Prairie Spine & Pain Institute in Peoria, Ill. "Given how common sacroiliac joint dysfunction is, it's important that we make it part of the training and examination process. If we have the wrong diagnosis and do the wrong treatment, the outcome is going to be poor."

Richard A. Kaul, MD, of New Jersey Spine and Rehabilitation, has begun Project Backbone, an initiative that will provide no cost back and spine care for veterans of the conflicts in Iraq and Afghanistan, according to a surgery center news release.