Skip to main content
. 2010 May;31(5):787–802. doi: 10.3174/ajnr.A1832

Table 2:

Etiology of back pain in children and adolescents

Back Pain
  1. Traumatic

    1. Spondylolysis/spondylolisthesis

    2. Vertebral column fractures

    3. Disk herniation

    4. Intraspinal hematoma

    5. Spinal cord injury

  2. Musculoskeletal

    1. Scheuermann disease

    2. Scoliosis

    3. Intervertebral disk degeneration

    4. Intervertebral disk herniation

    5. Intervertebral disk calcification

    6. Nonspecific musculoskeletal back pain

  3. Infectious

    1. Diskitis

    2. Vertebral osteomyelitis

    3. Epidural abscess

    4. Sacroiliac joint infection

    5. Chronic recurrent multifocal osteomyelitis

    6. Nonspinal infection

      1. Pyelonephritis

      2. Pneumonia

      3. Pelvic inflammatory disease

      4. Paraspinal muscle abscess

  4. Inflammatory

    1. Ankylosing spondylitis

    2. Juvenile idiopathic arthritis

    3. Arthritis

      1. Psoriatic arthritis

      2. Reactive arthritis

      3. Inflammatory bowel disease−associated arthritis

  5. Neoplastic disorders

    1. Spinal column

      1. Primary neoplasms

        1. Osteoid osteoma

        2. Osteoblastoma

        3. Aneurysmal bone cyst

        4. Giant cell tumor

        5. Chordoma

        6. Osteogenic sarcoma

        7. Ewing sarcoma

        8. Osteochondroma

        9. Histiocytosis

      2. Secondary neoplasms

        1. Leukemia

        2. Lymphoma

        3. Neuroblastoma

        4. Metastatic disease

    2. Spinal cord

      1. Intramedullary

        1. Astrocytoma

        2. Ependymoma

        3. Ganglioglioma

        4. Gangliocytoma

      2. Extradural tumors

        1. Neuroblastoma

        2. Ganglioneuroblastoma

        3. Ganglioneuroma

        4. Lymphoma

        5. Peripheral primitive neuroectodermal tumor

      3. Intradural-extramedullary

        1. Schwannoma

        2. Neurofibroma

        3. Meningioma

        4. CSF dissemination of intracranial neoplasms

  6. Congenital

    1. Syringomyelia

    2. Tethered cord syndrome

  7. Other

    1. Sickle cell pain crisis

    2. Cholecystitis

    3. Chronic pain syndromes

    4. Osteopo