Back pain in children and adolescents

A.V. Sergeev¹, Ye.V. Yekusheva²

¹Sechenov University, Moscow

²Federal Scientific Clinical Center of the Federal Medical Biological Academy, Moscow 

Most studies and clinical guidelines focus on back pain in adult patients. At the same time, current epidemiological data indicate a high prevalence of back pain among adolescents. The most common causes of back pain in children are benign musculoskeletal pain and injuries. Despite the high prevalence of musculoskeletal pain (about 50%), the following pain syndrome specific causes can be identified quite often: infectious spinal pathology, inflammatory spondyloarthropathy, osteoid osteoma, Scheuermann’s disease, spondylolysis and spondylolisthesis. As a rule, no additional examinations are required in case of musculoskeletal pain. Additional examinations (laboratory diagnostics and visualization) are required if there are signs of a specific pain aetiology, the so-called “danger signa ls” or “red flags” described in this article. The basis for the treatment and prevention of musculoskeletal pain is the use of various exercises methods with training the motor control, maintaining daily activity, and also adjusting the risk factors for a particular patient. Pharmacological treatment of back pain in pediatric patients is used for the shortest possible period. The optimal approach is the use of agents with high efficiency and a low development spectrum of adverse events.

Keywords: back pain, children, adolescents, musculoskeletal pain, myofascial pain syndrome.

For citation: Sergeev A.V., Yekusheva Ye.V. Back pain in children and adolescents. RMJ. 2019;9:28–32.