How to Diagnose Severe Back Pain

Diagnosing severe back pain is done by a doctor. If the severe pain is accompanied by symptoms of feeling faint, chest pain and trouble breathing it must be treated as an urgent situation. Go to the nearest emergency room immediately; you may be suffering a heart attack. When severe back pain exists, there are several different diagnostic tests your doctor will perform. He will have a better idea of where to start looking for the cause of the pain from the description you give him and by your answers to the questions that he will ask you.

Things You'll Need

• Emergency room visit
• Doctor's appointment
• History of past injuries

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Instructions

• 1

  Make an appointment with your doctor to get your severe back pain checked. Be prepared to sit, stand, bend over and perform other movements for your doctor. Your range of motion will be an important factor in the diagnosis process. Describing your pain in terms as constant, stabbing, burning and location will also help your doctor decide where to look first to locate the source of the pain.

• 2

  Tell your doctor of any prior injuries to your back, even if the injury was years ago. Old injuries can cause deterioration of discs in your back, so this information may be helpful. The doctor will also check your reflexes as part of the examination because if the pain is from a condition of the spine, such as an injury to a disc, there may be nerve involvement. Checking the reflexes of your knees is one of the diagnostic procedures for doing this.

• 3

  Be prepared to have an x-ray taken of the area, especially if the pain is caused by an injury, old or new. An x-ray will show your doctor any bone involvement causing the pain. If the severe pain occurred after picking up something heavy or slipping that caused a jerking motion of your back, your doctor may send you home with medication and recommend bed rest for a day or so. Because you did not fall and have a point of impact on your body resulting in a broken bone, he may diagnosis it as a pulled muscle.

• 4

  Diagnosing an injury or a more serious condition will most likely be done with Magnetic Resonance Imaging (MRI). This test allows your doctor to see any disc, bone or nerve damage to your back. The MRI can pick up any size irregularity in your liver, stomach, bladder, kidneys and heart, along with other things that may lead him to the origin of the pain. An MRI gives your physician a thorough look at your internal structure.

• 5

  A blood test is another useful diagnostic tool that your doctor may order if he or she suspects your pain may be coming from an organ such as the kidney. Certain enzymes are released that are picked up in a blood test that can indicate the involvement of your heart, kidney or liver. Because severe back pain can be caused from many different conditions, a variety of tests may be necessary.