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Previous Volume 343:723-726 September 7, 2000 Number 10 Next

	Since this article has no abstract, we have provided an extract of the first 100 words of the full text and any section headings.

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An 80-year-old man with degenerative arthritis of the hip and spine began to have midthoracic back pain and worsening pain in his left hip. The pain began suddenly, was not preceded by trauma, did not radiate, and was not relieved in any position. The back pain persisted for two weeks despite rest and treatment with ibuprofen. The patient took no other medications.

In an 80-year-old with back pain, I would worry about osteoporosis, either primary or secondary. The midthoracic area is a common site of compression fractures. Although osteoporosis is more common in women than men, at this age the . . . [Full Text of this Article]

Commentary

Source Information

From the Department of Medicine, Dartmouth Medical School, Hanover, N.H.

Address reprint requests to Dr. Lurie at SPORT at the Spine Center, Dartmouth Hitchcock Medical Center, 1 Medical Center Dr., Lebanon, NH 03756, or at jon.d.lurie@dartmouth.edu.

References

This article has been cited by other articles:

• Rives, P. A., Douglass, A. B. (2004). Evaluation and Treatment of Low Back Pain in Family Practice. J Am Board Fam Med 17: S23-S31 [Abstract] [Full Text]  
• Rees, J. H., Lo Re, V., Barton, T., Feiner, S., Hari, P., Joshi, A., Chemiti, G. K. P., Lurie, Jon. D., Gerber, P. D., Sox, H. C. (2001). A Pain in the Back. NEJM 344: 456-457 [Full Text]  
• (2000). Robin Goodfellow. Rheumatology (Oxford) 39: 1440-1440 [Full Text]