Low back pain (LBP) is a common clinical problem and is of major socioeconomic importance. However, at the current time, there is little information about the pathogenesis of this disease. Furthermore, treatment option of LBP has not been fully explored. We focused on articles that will stimulate the continuing efforts to understand the pathology, epidemiology, diagnosis, and method of treatment of LBP.
We prepared 7 articles in this special issue as follows: “A novel image-guided, automatic high-intensity neurostimulation device for the treatment of nonspecific low back pain” by E. Schiff et al., “Evaluation of diagnosis techniques used for spinal injury related back pain” by E. Janssen et al., “Prevalence, spinal alignment, and mobility of lumbar spinal stenosis with or without chronic low back pain: a community-dwelling study” by Y. Kasukawa et al., “Assessment and treatment of abuse risk in opioid prescribing for chronic pain” by Serraillier et al., “Pain-related fear: a critical review of the related measures” by Verbunt et al., “The influence of pain distribution on walking velocity and horizontal ground reaction forces in patients with low back pain” by Etnyre et al.,” Stop using the modified work apgar to measure job satisfaction” by DeVellis et al.
We believe that these 7 articles help readers to understand the mechanism and therapy of chronic LBP.
Seiji Ohtori
Yasuchika Aoki
Gen Inoue
Laura S. Stone
Giustino Varrassi