What question did this study set out to answer?

This narrative review questions the exclusive focus on intervertebral disc pathology in chronic low back pain (CLBP) assessment and management.

May 24, 2026CureusOpen Access

Re-examining the Disc-Centric Interpretation of Chronic Low Back Pain: A Narrative Review

View Full Paper

Ask AI

Bookmark

Authors

Narrative review questions the focus on disc pathology for low back pain assessment, exploring muscle and biomechanical roles.

This narrative review questions the exclusive focus on intervertebral disc pathology in chronic low back pain (CLBP) assessment and management.
Narrative review based on literature search of PubMed, Scopus, and Web of Science from January 1990 to February 2025.
Selected studies emphasized paraspinal muscle morphology, spinal biomechanics, or lumbar disc imaging.
Conducted a narrative synthesis of results without quantitative analysis.
MRI findings frequently show degenerated discs with no consistent relationship to pain intensity.
Changes in lumbar multifidus muscle morphology, such as atrophy and fatty infiltration, correlate with CLBP presence and functional impairment.
Muscle dysfunction appears to persist even after pain episodes resolve, affecting spinal load distribution and intradiscal pressure.

Ammar Sawaf (2026) studied this question.

View Full Paper

Ask AI

Bookmark