Background: Opioids are widely prescribed for cancer and non-cancer related pain in hospitalized patients. The opioid usage increased roughly three times in the past two decades. Pain is a feeling of distress evoked by sensory stimuli with/without organ damage and an associated emotional experience. Considering the subjective nature of pain, the need for medication is [...]

Background: Nearly 80% of adults will experience non-specific low back pain at some point in their life.(1) In the absence of concerning features such as saddle anesthesia, imaging studies are not indicated and can lead to a downstream cascade of services which can result in undue physical, emotional, and financial harm to the patient.(2-6) As [...]

Case Presentation: A 29-year-old African American male with chronic intermittent low back pain of several weeks presented with sudden-onset severe low back pain and inability to bear weight or ambulate. Prior to his hospitalization, he had a few urgent care visits, where he was diagnosed with back pain of muscular origin and was discharged home [...]

Case Presentation: A 27-year-old male with a past medical history of HIV, poorly adherent to antiretroviral therapy (ART), presented with a 1-month history of worsening lower back pain. Pain was described as 10/10 in intensity, radiated to upper back, unrelieved by Ibuprofen, aggravated by lying flat and associated with a frontal headache. He denied fever, [...]

Case Presentation: 60-year-old African American male with history of polyarticular tophaceous gout, chronic back pain related to DDD, HTN, CKD stage III, HIV on HAART, COPD presented with worsening back pain of 1-week duration associated with progressive lower extremity weakness and inability to walk. Low back pain was noted as sharp, stabbing in nature radiating [...]

Case Presentation: 87-year-old female presented with chronic low back pain for one month and a new onset fever for 2 days. Patient denied recent travel history, sick contact, chest pain, shortness of breath, urinary symptoms, abdominal pain, diarrhea, or weight loss. She denied lower extremity weakness, sensory abnormality, urinary or bowel incontinence, gait disturbance or [...]

Case Presentation: A 63- year-old man with a history of seizures, hepatitis C infection and multiple spinal fusion surgeries presented to the emergency room (ER) for the evaluation of back pain. Back pain was said to have commenced 3 days prior to presentation. Pain was mainly located in the lumbar region, dull in nature, rated [...]

Case Presentation: 39 YO WM presented to PCP with lower back pain that he initially attributed to pulling muscles after playing golf. Pain persisted and got worse. His PCP ordered lumbar spine CT when he started to have cauda equina compression symptoms which showed intradural sacral mass. Initial labs revealed 45% eosinophilia and mild leukocytosis. [...]

Case Presentation: A 40-year-old male presented to the emergency department with complaints of back pain for 3 weeks. He described the pain as aching and circumferential involving the sternum, right ribs, shoulders, and back. His previous medical history was unremarkable and he never had any prior imaging studies. Plain radiographs of the spine did not [...]

Case Presentation: A 32-year-old female with a past medical history of migraines, anxiety, and depression presented to the emergency department with complaints of bilateral leg pain and urinary retention. Two weeks prior, she started experiencing urinary frequency and was started on nitrofurantoin at an urgent care center due to concern for a UTI. She also [...]