Chronic Low Back Disability

Abstract

In the last chapter attention was called to the fact that an irritable focus at the periphery may initiate a dynamic process involving the regulatory centers of the nervous system. It was suggested that through the agency of this central process reflexes tended to spread to neighboring and even distant parts of the body. A quite similar mechanism is called into play in certain cases of chronic back disability, and I should like to briefly consider some of the aspects of such cases as they relate to the principal theme of the monograph. It should be clearly understood that I am not undertaking a discussion of the whole complex subject of low back disability, nor am I advocating a particular method of treatment for the many different kinds of back pain.