Low Back Strain

The important and difficult element in the consideration of cases of back injury lies in the estimation of the actual value of the symptoms, compared with the evidence of the injury as obtained by the examination. The injuries involving both strains and actual damage possess symptoms and signs much in common, but which do not correspond in prominence to the degree or severity of the result occasioned by the violence, and this is particularly true of those symptoms which are easily intensified by the patient. The variation in the prominence of many of these signs naturally depends on the character and the severity of the accident, but the gravity of the injury is determined largely by the type of spine in question. As an aid in the determination of the gravity of the lesion in the low back, these cases of so-called strain may be considered from two points of