Back Injuries Health Risks

Most people will have some kind of back injuries at various times in their life. Our body movements usually do not cause health risks that may prove to be harmful, but it is not surprising that symptoms develop over time from day to day wear and tear, overuse, or injury. Back problems and injuries often occur during sporting events or weekend recreational activities, tasks performed while working, or home improvement projects. Back injuries can cause problems anywhere from the neck to the tailbone.

Back injuries are the most common cause of acute low back pain. Back and neck injuries frequently occur when you use your back muscles in activities that you do not do on a daily basis, such as the lifting and transfer of heavy objects or working around the house. Low back strain also may occur from tripping over a board, falling on a flight of stairs, or risks that may increase back straining by excessive twisting of the back muscles. Severe back injuries with numbness or tingling may result from car accidents, falling off a ladder, direct blows to the back and neck area, falling hard in a sporting event causing pain and tenderness onto the buttocks, or a severe penetrating lumbar injury such as a stab wound.

Although most causes of back pain are due to an injury to the vertebra or nerve fibers of the back, it may have another cause. Some people are more likely to develop back injuries than others. Factors that increase your risk for back muscle strain and injury include growing old, having a family history of back injuries, sitting for long periods at work, lifting or transferring heavy objects, running back injuries, or having a disc degenerative disease such as osteoporosis or scoliosis.

Low back injuries may occur in children and teenagers, but children and teens are less likely to see a doctor for lower back pain. Although most back injury statistics occur in adults who are between the ages of 20 and 50, when back problems occur in children younger than 20 and adults older than 50 are more likely to have a serious back disorder.

Sudden (acute) back injuries

Pain from a back injury may be sudden and severe. Pain or tenderness may develop soon after the spine injury. Pain from an acute spinal cord injury usually does not last longer than 6 weeks. Acute injuries include:

• An injury to the ligaments or nerve roots in the back.
• A fracture or dislocation of the spine. This can cause a spinal cord injury that may lead to permanent paralysis.
• A torn or ruptured disc. If the tear in the spinal disc is large enough, the jellylike material inside the disc may leak out (herniate) and press against a nerve ending.

Overuse back injuries

When a specific injury occurs, especially if your symptoms began gradually or during everyday activities most often account from improper movements or bad posture while lifting, golf back injuries, football back injuries, or gymnastics back injuries, or can even happen while you are sleeping. Symptoms can include pain, muscle spasms, and symptoms of sciatica leg pain. The pain often goes away within 4 weeks with proper rest with usually no back treatment. Possibly a few back massage appointments will do the trick.

Low-back biomechanics of lifting and transferring materials

The lower back is the most vulnerable to injury due to its distance from the hands to the object being lifted or transferred. Both the materials load and the weight of your upper torso create significant stress on the body structures at the low back. Firefighters back injuries cam come under this description.

Back injuries are credited as the most common reason for days off from the work week right after the common cold. Roughly 80 percent of all adults are estimated to experience a back injury in their lifetime, and about 10 percent will suffer multiple back injuries during the work lifetime.

Personal impact: About 80 percent of back injuries are for a short period of time, and workers are soon able get back to normal daily lifestyle. At first, they may experience back pain and low back strain. For some, the cause of lower back pain is long-term. And for a small percentage of people, acute low back pain lasts their entire lifetime. For workers with long-term, disabling back and neck injuries, lifetime workforce earnings may drop significantly. These employees may also suffer a loss of self independence and a diminished healthy lifestyle.

National impact: With a critical national nursing shortage happening right now, back injuries among nursing personnel can severely hamper the nation's ability to provide quality health care to individuals.

Cumulative spinal disorders

Most work-related musculoskeletal injuries occur from cumulative injuries happening over a long period of time, and are therefore called "cumulative trauma disorders" (CTDs).  For example, nurses or work injuries for ems can come from overextending the spine from lifting improperly or lifting medical patients that are an overload for the worker's back to support may cause micro-tears in the spinal disks. Because these minor injuries do not cause any pain, the medical employee is usually not aware that the disk has even been damaged. If not allowed to properly heal over time, the damage to the disc or disc’s may come to a head some day and result in a bulging or ruptured disc, creating a cumulative injury marked by acute pain from the affected area of the back.

Equipment and prevention of back injuries

Preventing serious back injuries to workers must include the use of patient lifting and transfer equipment for some patients, but especially for obese (bariatric) patients. A Patient Lift and Transfer Resources List may be helpful in identifying companies, examples of equipment (including bariatric patient needs), and medical equipment company email contact information.

Back injuries can not be taken lightly if they are minor back injuries or serious back injuries at work. As described above a small tear in a disc lining can lead to a very serious lifelong back problem. Kind of like the straw that broke the camels back so to speak. With just some proper knowledge of how back injuries occur over time or sudden acute back injuries such that happen in a sporting event a person can drastically cut down the time it takes for back injuries to heal.