Acute Back Pain vs. Chronic Back Pain: Know When to Call a Doctor

If you’re experiencing persistent, recurrent, or severe back pain that restricts your ability to move, limits your activity levels, or undermines your vitality, you’re not alone: Back pain is a common complaint that most adults cope with at some point in life. 

Lower back pain is especially prevalent — it’s a leading cause of missed work, doctor visits, and disability in the United States and worldwide. It’s so common, in fact, that four in five American adults (80%) experience low back pain in their lifetime, and one in four adults (26%) deal with it at any given time. 

At Interventional Sports and Pain Management Associates in Humble and Baytown, Texas, board-certified pain management expert Dr. Okezie N. Okezie provides targeted treatment solutions for Houston-area patients suffering from any type of back pain. 

Here, Dr. Okezie explains the difference between acute, subacute, and chronic back pain, and explains how to know when your pain may warrant a trip to our office.   

Acute versus chronic back pain

Just as a range of injuries, disorders, and conditions can trigger back pain, many factors can influence the severity and duration of that pain. But no matter what its cause or how limiting its effects may be, back pain is first classified by the length of time it persists:  

Acute and subacute back pain

Most cases of back pain are acute, or short-term, meaning they don’t last longer than one month (four weeks). Back pain is considered subacute when it lasts longer than four weeks but doesn’t persist longer than three months (12 weeks). 

Although acute and subacute back pain can be severe enough to restrict range of motion, limit activity, and interfere with your sleep, the right kind of care is typically all it takes to manage, and eventually resolve, the problem.  

Chronic back pain

Back pain that persists beyond the three-month mark is considered chronic, or long-term. All cases of chronic back pain start out as acute back pain, but only about one in five cases (20%) of acute back pain persists long enough to become chronic.    

You may imagine that acute back pain is more likely to become a chronic problem when it’s left untreated, but that’s only partly true — sometimes, despite careful treatment and even interim bouts of real relief, acute back pain continues to persist until it’s chronic.   

Common causes of back pain

Most of the time, acute and subacute back pain is a sign of a “mechanical” problem, or some kind of benign injury or disorder that disrupts the way the components of your back fit or move together. Mechanical problems that trigger acute back pain include:

• Muscle strain
• Myofascial knots
• Ligament sprains
• Disc herniation 
• A pinched nerve

The problems behind most cases of acute and subacute back pain can usually be resolved with the right treatment approach, so they rarely persist long enough to become chronic.

Chronic back pain, on the other hand, is much more likely to be a product of a long-term underlying condition like:

• Osteoarthritis (OA) 
• Ankylosing spondylitis 
• Spinal stenosis
• Spondylolisthesis
• Degenerative disc disease

No matter what the underlying cause, most types of back pain can be made significantly worse by external factors like poor posture, improper body mechanics, inactivity, excess body weight, stress, and smoking.

When back pain requires expert care

It’s not always easy to know when you should call a doctor for acute back pain, especially early on. While you may be inclined to take over-the-counter pain relievers and simply wait it out, you should give us a call if: 

• Your back pain is severe or unmanageable  
• You’ve had uninterrupted pain for three days
• Your pain affects or limits the way you move 

If you’re living with chronic back pain that’s never been fully assessed, hasn’t responded well to previous treatment, or has progressively worsened, come see Dr. Okezie as soon as possible. 

How holistic care eases back pain

Dr. Okezie takes a holistic approach to back pain that emphasizes conservative care for acute and chronic cases alike. When spinal surgery is an option, it’s only recommended as a last resort when all other options have failed.   

While the right balance of activity and rest combined with physical therapy, massage, and bracing can provide sustained relief in many cases, chronic back pain that’s particularly persistent or severe may respond best to epidural injections, nerve blocks, radiofrequency ablation, spinal cord stimulation, and other interventional pain relief procedures. 

Whether you’re dealing with acute, subacute, or chronic back pain, Interventional Sports and Pain Management Associates is here to help. Call or click online to schedule a visit at your nearest office in Humble or Baytown, Texas, today.