A common complaint in the ED.

Years ago, as an ED nurse, I saw many patients whose primary complaint was back pain. Most of these were from recent trauma, such as after the patient had sustained a fall or was involved in a motor vehicle accident or other injury-causing incident. In one dramatic case, a patient came in with sudden, severe back pain, not realizing he had been stabbed!

I remember a young man who came in on a Sunday, complaining of a backache that had developed over the prior few weeks. He assumed it was just a muscle strain from working out, but finally sought treatment because the pain wasn’t letting up and had spread to include pain and numbness down one leg. As it turns out, he had a badly herniated disc.

Emergency departments fill a care gap for many patients.

Today, patients come to EDs not just for emergencies or even “urgencies”—EDs are often the only place an individual may have access to care. For some patients with ongoing health problems, an ED is where they go when the pain or disability has finally become too much to bear.

What red flags should nurses look out for with back pain in the ED?

“[N]onspecific low back pain that does not resolve with self-care and prompts patients to seek treatment in an ED may result from a serious underlying pathology…”

This month’s CE article, “Assessing Back Pain in Patients Presenting to the ED” (free to […]