Richard M. Schwend - Back Pain in the Young Child and Adolescent: A Case-Based Guide

This Springer imprint is published by the registered company Springer Nature Switzerland AG

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Musculoskeletal conditions are a frequent cause of disability and discomfort for children. Back pain is a common complaint presenting to the primary care physicians office, the emergency room, or urgent care and can be a source of great anxiety for the child, parents, and clinician. Many primary care physicians have not received specific education and training on the appropriate workup and referral for pediatric back pain. This book is designed to fill this gap in musculoskeletal education.

Multiple physicians who are in the trenches caring for children with back pain have contributed to this text. We designed the book with case-based chapters written in a standardized format to help the reader navigate through the many diagnoses that can present with back pain. The authors have included clinical cases from their practices, common presenting symptoms, physical exam findings, tips on the work up, when to refer, multiple illustrations, and red flags to keep the clinician out of trouble. Each chapter also includes brief practical pearls from the editors.

In addition, we have included introductory chapters on topics such as epidemiology, anatomy, radiology, and medical conditions that contribute to back pain. A common theme throughout the book is that a focused history, physical examination, the use of plain radiographs, and simple laboratory tests are elements of a basic work up for most cases of back pain. Advanced imaging studies and more sophisticated laboratory tests are used on a case-by-case basis as indicated during the collaborative evaluation of the patient by the primary care physician and the spine specialist.

We are indebted to the many outstanding authors for sharing their experience and unique perspective in caring for children. We are also indebted to our editor at Springer, Connie Walsh, who led us through the maze of book publishing with clarity and diplomacy. We also thank our primary care colleagues, for whom this book is written and who typically are the first to see these children with back pain. The eminent pediatric orthopedic surgeon Mercer Rang said that Preventive orthopaedics is better than reactive orthopaedics. Prevention is wholesale and treatment is retail. Finally, we thank our pediatric patients, who, over the course of our careers in pediatric orthopedics, have taught us the most.

Hopefully this book provides you the reader with new ideas and many clinical pearls to use in your practice. However, if themes in the book confuse or obscure, we welcome your feedback so that we can improve for the second edition of this book. Please email us at: rmschwend@cmh.edu and WLH5k@hotmail.com.