Year: 2025
Type: article
Study design: Observational Study
Abstract: Objective: To add to the body of evidence in the scientific literature with respect to the etiology of adolescent back pain. Design: A retrospective chart review was conducted over a 3 year period. Charts were initially rendered using International Classification of Disease, 10th Revision (ICD-10) diagnosis, and subsequently narrowed down to age range of 10-19 years. Additionally, patients with documented trauma requiring emergent spinal surgery or an alternative diagnosis (eg, hip pain) were excluded. Setting: This study was performed in a large United States based private multispecialty orthopedic practice. This includes 30 different ambulatory office locations in multiple demographic regions. Participants: Patients ages 10 to 19 years old who presented with documented low back pain (LBP) were included. A total of N = 1932 patients were included with a 1.1/1 women to men ratio. The study was conducted over a 3 year period (2015-2018). Interventions: Not applicable. Main Outcome Measures: Final diagnosis reached by clinician, verified by chart and imaging review. Results: A total of 1932 patients were included: 1010 (52.3%) women and 922 (47.7%) men. Physician reviewers grouped the diagnoses into comprehensive categories. LBP without a specific cause was the most common diagnosis with 827 patients (42.81%). Women accounted for 447 (54.0%) of the patients diagnosed with LBP, whereas men accounted for 380 (46.0%). Disk disease was the second most common diagnosis representing 534 study participants (27.64%). There were more women than men in the overall disk cohort with 304 (30.10%) and 230 (24.95%), respectively. Spondylolysis was the third most common diagnosis with 281 patients (14.54%). The prevalence was higher for men than women, 192 (20.82%) and 89 (8.81%), respectively. Conclusions: A clearer understanding of the various etiologies associated with general LBP was obtained. The findings reveal a higher occurrence of disk-related issues compared with previous data and highlight gender-based differences in the identified pathologies.
Institutions: Thomas Jefferson University, Rothman Orthopaedics
Language: English
Subfield: Pathology and Forensic Medicine
Field: Medicine
Domain: Health Sciences
Open Access status: gold
Estimated APC paid: $2,500
OpenAlex ID: W4408514367