Misdiagnosis of Lumbar Disc Degenerative Diseases in Patients with Low Back Pain Syndrome (A Report of 36 Cases)
ZHANG Chao
HE Qing
RUAN Di-ke
Abstract：Objective To investigate the causes and clinical features of misdiagnosis of lumbar disc degenerative dis-eases. Methods We conducted a retrospective analysis of a hospital database, including all patients admitted to the depart-ment of orthopaedic surgery of General Hospital of PLA Navy, with a diagnosis of lumbar disc degenerative diseases and subse-quent diagnosis of other diseases during January 2007 and December 2011. Results All the patients were found with low back pain syndrome, misdiagnosed as lumbar degenerative diseases including 18 cases of disc herniation, 8 cases of lumbar stenosis, 6 cases of discogenic low back pain, 2 cases of lumbar spondylolisthesis and 2 cases of lumbar joints abnormality. Definite diagnoses were primary spinal tumor (4 cases), metastatic tumor (3 cases), arterial occlusion of lower extremity (3 cases), sacroiliitis (3 cases), lumbar tuberculosis (5 cases), avascular necrosis of femoral head (6 cases), osteoarthrosis of hip (6 cases), etc. All patients underwent specific treatments after the exact diagnosis and showed obvious improvement. Conclusion Because low back pain syndrome may be misdiagnosed as disc degenerative diseases such as inflammation, tumor and blood vessel diseases, at an early stage, therefore a careful understanding of history and neurological examination, including impulse test is mandatory to maximally reduce the misdiagnosis rate.
Keywords：Spinal diseaseLumbar spineLow back painDiagnosisMisdiagnosis
Publication Date：2015-01-01
Online Publishing Date：2025-08-15(First online date of this platform, not the publication date of the document)
Pages：4( 37-40 )