With reference to the National Disease Management Guideline for Low Back Pain, the article on acute, nonspecific lumbar pain (1) states that “[R]estriction of activity, including bed rest, is of no benefit and merely prolongs recovery.”
How is it then that, in my 45 years as a primary care physician, my patients with acute lumbago can sleep without pain in a special lateral position (lower leg straight, upper leg bent, upper shoulder pushed back, hand on the upper buttock), which reinforces lumbar lordosis, and can work without pain after three days of evening administration of one diclofenac sodium suppository?
How is it that, when acute lumbar spine pain occurs in the evening after going to bed in supine position, a small, firm cushion placed under the lumbar spine leads to immediate disappearance of low back pain?
References
- 1.Casser HR, Seddigh S, Rauschmann M. Acute lumbar back pain—investigation, differential diagnosis and treatment. Dtsch Arztebl Int. 2016;113:223–234. doi: 10.3238/arztebl.2016.0223. [DOI] [PMC free article] [PubMed] [Google Scholar]