Spinal Disorders

Burden of disease

Over 70% of people in developed countries will experience low back pain at some point in their life.

General Practice consultations for low back pain have been estimated at 1415 million per year in the UK.

Back pain is the second leading cause of sick leave in the United Kingdom.

Disability resulting from low back pain has become a public health problem accounting for 119 million days of incapacity.

The annual incidence of spinal cord injury remains at 1540 cases per million population.

Directions for future Research

Investigate how pain is caused and how the brain changes with chronic pain.

Explore how gene therapy may help reverse the process of disc degeneration.

Develop a compliant artificial disc replacement in the spine.

Educate the public and doctors in how to avoid fear and change beliefs about back pain to prevent acute pain becoming chronic.

Conduct large multicentre randomised controlled trials to find the most effective form of spinal fusion.

Better define the role of radiotherapy, chemotherapy and surgical decompression and stabilisation for spinal cord compression after cancer metastases to the spine.

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