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Intermittent Pain Spinal Tumor Diagnosis

Spine tumors can be cancerous or benign. However, even benign spine tumors often cause pain. This may start as intermittent pain—or pain that is not constant. This pain, along with other symptoms, may be used to diagnose a spine tumor. There a number of things to keep in mind when having symptoms diagnosed.

  1. Intermittent Back Pain

    • Many people experience intermittent back pain at some point in their lives. Intermittent pain is not an automatic indication of a spinal tumor. Intermittent back pain can be an occasional pain in the muscles around the back or pain in the spine itself. According to Ohio State University medical center, spinal tumors are generally located at the center of the spine, as opposed to the lower or upper spine.

    When You Should See a Doctor

    • Because most back pain in not caused by cancer at all, it is usually fine to let intermittent pains pass on their own. However, you should contact your doctor if the back pain becomes constant, gets worse at night, occurs for no known reason or is not treatable using over-the-counter medications. Also contact your doctor if the intermittent pains occur consistently for more than two weeks, as it may be caused by a different condition.

    Preparation

    • If your intermittent back pain has worsened, or is being experienced with other symptoms, and you have made an appointment with your doctor, there are a number of things you should do before the meeting to help with diagnosis. Write down all symptoms as well as any questions you would like to ask. Also make a note of any instances of brain or spinal tumors in your family history. Write a personal medical history.

    Tests

    • Spinal tumors are rare, and because of this some time may pass before it is diagnosed. The sooner the tumor is identified, however, the better the chances of recovery. If your intermittent back pain has started to exhibit symptoms that suggest a spinal tumor, your doctor will probably decide to perform spinal magnetic resonance imaging or an X-ray to create a cross-section of the spine to try to find the tumor. A biopsy may also be performed on a small piece of tissue from the spine.

    Other Symptoms

    • Other symptoms of spinal tumors that may accompany intermittent back pain are loss of sensation and muscle control in the legs, changes in bowel and/or bladder function (usually a loss), paralysis at some point in the body due to a nerve being compressed by the tumor, scoliosis (curvature of the spine) and difficulty walking. Any of these symptoms occurring with intermittent back pain should prompt you to contact your doctor immediately.

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