Low Back Pain and Sciatica course

This session describes how to assess and manage patients aged over 16 years in accordance with the low back pain and sciatica guideline (NG59) published in 2016 by NICE

Objectives

By the end of this session, you will be able to:

• Assess a patient who presents with back and/or leg pain, including use of risk stratification
• Support patients to self-manage
• Select initial management approaches
• Describe how to manage sciatica
• Summarise treatments available in secondary care

Low back pain is the main reported reason for absence from work and the most common cause for years lived with disability in the UK. The majority of patients who present to primary care improve rapidly, but up to one third are left with ongoing or recurrent symptoms that greatly affect their quality of life and lead to considerable healthcare and social costs