What Is Triggering Your Pain In The Lower Left Back?

When you are experiencing pain in your lower left back, you need to know the root cause. An elimination process should be followed to diagnose the cause of such a pain. Here is a detailed explanation of what could be the possible sources so that you can communicate with your physician in a better way.

Your strained muscle can be the most common reason

Did you have a slip on the snow? Or you could have had a night's sleep in a completely incorrect posture. Alternatively, you could be a golf player and after playing a game or two in your golf club, experience a sharp needle-like pain in your back's lower left side. The pain could be due to a torn or an overstretched muscle. Such a form of an injury is called a muscle strain.

In fact, the most common reason for your pain in the lower left back is due to a muscle strain. Hence, it is likely that your physician may start the process of pain diagnosis by conducting tests for this kind of an injury. He or she may query about your medical history in detail. Your doctor may also decide to conduct a proper physical examination in order to check the presence of the following condition(s):

1. Develop signaling that your muscle may have a rupture

2. Tenderness in a particular location

3. Your muscle has become weak

4. Feeling uncomfortable during certain motion exercises

Issues related to your spinal structure

Although your back pain could be severe, the good news is that your back pain in the lower left side due to a muscle strain can disappear within a few days. In a majority of cases, such a pain gets resolved within a time period of three to four weeks.

In case the source of a lower left pain on your back is not due to a muscle strain, your physician may try to check whether your back pain is originating from an issue associated with your spinal column. Check out some of the most common causes of pain in your lower left back pain:

1. Dysfunction of Sacroiliac joint

2. Facet joint pain

3. Lumbar herniated disc

Apart from the set of diagnostic checks to identify whether there is a muscle strain or not, your doctor may also ask you to undergo many other tests to ascertain whether it is being caused due to a problem in your spinal structure. For instance, your physician may advise you to go through any of the tests mentioned below:

1. Neurologic exam

2. Reflex test

3. Leg raise test

Additionally, your physician may decide to go for an imaging study for detecting the presence if any kind of a structural problem. Such tests may include an MRI, CT scans or Xrays, which may unveil problems such as sacroiliac joint arthropathy, facet or a disc herniation. Symptoms of pain in lower left back caused by an issue with internal organs may widely vary depending on the organ.

Get yourself tested by our expert physicians at Phoenix Family Medical Clinic, and stay in good health today.

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