An experimental study of certain phases of chronic backache : a combined gynecologic and orthopedic investigation / by Edward Reynolds and Robert W. Lovett.

  • Reynolds, Edward, 1860-1936.
Date:
1910
Catalogue details

Licence: In copyright

Credit: An experimental study of certain phases of chronic backache : a combined gynecologic and orthopedic investigation / by Edward Reynolds and Robert W. Lovett. Source: Wellcome Collection.

Provider: This material has been provided by The Royal College of Surgeons of England. The original may be consulted at The Royal College of Surgeons of England.

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    is most often aggravated during menstruation and in general is either unilateral or bilateral, but in the latter case on close questioning is usually found to be worse on one side than on the other. Local tenderness may or may not be present. If the back is exposed and the finger-tips are placed over the erector spinse muscles, perceptible spasm may be excited in these muscles by voluntary forward or lateral bending at the waist, and perfectly normal spinal mobility is unusual in the more marked cases. Bending is frequently better performed to one side than to the other. The nervous element in these cases may be slight, or so severe as to dominate the whole picture. The condition sometimes originates from accidents, such as falls; it begins at other times as the result of overuse or strain, as in prolonged piano-playing, after heavy lifting, or after surgical operations. At other times it is found without assignable cause. The affec- tion is exceedingly persistent and seldom very severe, and its most striking characteristic feature is the patient’s insistence on a habitual pain for which no ade- quate cause is apparent. A search for that cause was the purpose of this investigation. PRESENT TERMINOLOGY The causes of this condition have been variously assigned by specialists and the general practitioner to the pelvic organs, to the muscles and joints, and to the nervous system. The uncertainty concerning its true nature is expressed by the many names applied to the condition, of which the most common are the following: Hysterical spine. Neurasthenic spine. Weak back. Uterine backache. Irritable spine. Chronic lumbago. Railroad spine. Relaxation of the sacroiliac joints. Among the laity the condition is often attributed to kidney disease. i i 4.1 • Without denying the existence of cases in which this symptom is the result of diverse causes, such as actual uterine, spinal or sacro-iliac disease, we are inclined from the observations and experiments to be described to