[Cause-specific treatment for nonspecific low back pain].

Nonspecific low back pain has long been a troublesome clinical entity in that the diagnoses are usually hard to define, and the effect of treatment unsure. We have been conducting long-term basic and clinical research in Zhujiang Hospital in an effort to find the exact mechanism for this disease and to explore its causal treatment. On the basis of literature review and treatment result evaluation, we recommend the following approaches for origin-specific diagnosis and treatments: (1) For spinal nerve dorsal ramus syndrome caused by mechanical stimulation on the stem part of the dorsal ramus, freezing the dorsal ramus with liquid-nitrogen may constitute the primary treatment. (2) In cases of low back pain originated from the lumbar disc due to degeneration of discs, treatment may be implemented through disc resection with or without arthrodesis. (3) Facet syndrome, a condition with low back pain that is seldom caused by pathological changes in the facet itself, but mostly by the pulling of the dorsal ramus due to the dislocation of the facet, should be attributed to the dorsal ramus syndrome. (4) Lumbar vertebra instability arising from loosened intervertebral conjunction calls for arthrodesis as the primary choice. (5) Interspinal ligaments injury can be most effectively treated by the combination of blocking and needle knife loosing. (6) Low back pain with underlying causes in the internal organs is often caused by diseases in the pelvic organs, and only these diseases are cured can the back pain be relieved. These origin-specific diagnosis and treatments we proposed here await further investigation and comments from our peers interested in this problem.