Vialle - AOSpine Masters Series, Volume 8: Back Pain

Thieme Medical Publishers, Inc.
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New York, NY 10001

Executive Editor: William Lamsback
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Compositor: Carol Pierson, Chernow Editorial Services, Inc.

Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data
Names: Wang, Jeffrey C., editor. | Lamartina, Claudio, editor. | AOSpine International (Firm), issuing body.
Title: AOSpine masters series. Volume 8, Back pain / guest editors, Jeffrey C. Wang, Claudio Lamartina.
Other titles: Back pain
Description: New York : Thieme, [2017] | Includes bibliographical references and index.
Identifiers: LCCN 2016029831 | ISBN 9781626232297 (alk. paper) | ISBN 9781626232303 (eISBN)
Subjects: | MESH: Back Pain
Classification: LCC RD771.B217 | NLM WE 720 | DDC 617.5/64dc23
LC record available at https://lccn.loc.gov/2016029831
Copyright 2017 by Thieme Medical Publishers, Inc.

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Printed in China by Everbest Printing Ltd.
5 4 3 2 1
ISBN 978-1-62623-229-7

Also available as an e-book
eISBN 978-1-62623-230-3

Luiz Roberto Vialle

Jeffrey C. Wang and Claudio Lamartina

Marco Brayda-Bruno

Gustavo Zanoli

Roberto Chapa Sosa and Neil N. Patel

Alberto Zerbi

Kristen E. Jones and David W. Polly, Jr.

Mauro Alini, Sibylle Grad, Hans-Joachim Wilke, Fabio Galbusera, and Alessandra Colombini

Asdrubal Falavigna and Carlo Domnico Marrone

Katherine M. Schroeder, Erica E. Gonzalez, and John P. Dormans

Max Aebi

Rishi Mugesh Kanna, Ajoy Prasad Shetty, Emiliano Vialle, and Shanmuganathan Rajasekaran

Christopher C. Ornelas and Mona Zall

Martin H. Pham, Andre M. Jakoi, Neil N. Patel, and Jeffrey C. Wang

Roberto Bassani and Elena Serchi

Pedro Berjano

Claudio Lamartina and Carlotta Martini

Lawrence G. Lenke

Luiz Roberto Vialle, MD, PhD
Series Editor

Spine care is advancing at a rapid pace. The challenge for today's spine care professional is to quickly synthesize the best available evidence and expert opinion in the management of spine pathologies. The AOSpine Masters Series provides just thateach volume in the series delivers pathology-focused expert opinion on procedures, diagnosis, clinical wisdom, and pitfalls, and highlights today's top research papers.

To bring the value of its masters level educational courses and academic congresses to a wider audience, AOSpine has assembled internationally recognized spine pathology leaders to develop volumes in this Masters Series as a vehicle for sharing their experiences and expertise and providing links to the literature. Each volume focuses on a current compelling and sometimes controversial topic in spine care.

The unique and efficient format of the Masters Series volumes quickly focuses the attention of the reader on the core information critical to understanding the topic, while encouraging the reader to look further into the recommended literature.

Through this approach, AOSpine is advancing spine care worldwide.

Luiz Roberto Vialle, MD, PhD

The complex nature of the topic of this AOSpine Masters Series volume, entitled Back Pain, is reflected in the lack of established, shared opinions. For example, the reported prevalence of back pain ranges from 70% to 85%, according to different analyses. This variability reflects the lack of consensus even in the basic descriptive statistics. This is why we asked ourselves if an AOSpine Master Series book could help, both on the cultural and practical side. This volume, and the work behind it, is our attempt to answer that question. Given the serious and often confounding nature of the subject matter, we wanted to distinguish the topic with clever chapter titles that would pique the interest of the readers. Therefore, the editors have given a playful name to each chapter that is consistent with the specific subject being discussed. These extra titles are separate from the authors' titles and appear in the upper lefthand corner of every chapter opening page. We hope you will be able to interpret their meaning and that they will make your reading more pleasurable.