Low Back Pain Guideline

Clinical Resources | Patient Resources

 

Clinical Practice Guideline

Evidence-Informed Primary Care Management of Low Back Pain
(3rd edition, December 2015; minor revision July 2017)

• Guideline Documents including Full Guideline hosted by Towards Optimized Practice (TOP) Alberta
  https://actt.albertadoctors.org/CPGs/Pages/Low-Back-Pain.aspx
   

Supporting Documents and Process Description

• Background Document, 3rd Edition. February 2017
  Download Background document (3rd edition, 2017)
• Background Document, 2nd Edition. July 2012
  Download Background document (2nd edition, 2012)
• Background Document. August 2009, Revised June 2010
  Download Background document (2009, revised 2010)

Resources and Tools

• List of Low Back Pain Guideline Resources and Tools, July 2017.
  Download Resource List
   

Clinical Resources

External Guidelines

• 2017 Canadian guideline for opioids for chronic non-cancer pain. Hamilton (ON): Michael G. DeGroote National Pain Centre at McMaster University; 2017. Available at: http://nationalpaincentre.mcmaster.ca/guidelines.html
• Authorizing dried cannabis for chronic pain or anxiety: Preliminary guidance from the College of Family Physicians of Canada. College of Family Physicians of Canada; 2014. Available at: http://www.cfpc.ca/uploadedFiles/Resources/_PDFs/Authorizing Dried Cannabis for Chronic Pain or Anxiety.pdf

The 3-Minute Primary Care Low Back Examination

This short, three-part film* was produced in 2004 by the University of Toronto's Division of Rheumatology, and the Institute for Work & Health. The 13-minute video features Dr. Simon Carette, Head, Division of Rheumatology, University Health Network and Mount Sinai Hospital. The script was co-edited by Dr. Carette's colleague, Dr. Claire Bombardier.

Dr. Carette notes at the outset that this short film reviews the screening examination of a patient presenting with low back pain. He focuses on three key elements:

1. Observing the patient from the time s/he enters the physician's office;
2. Ensuring the patient is appropriately disrobed; and,
3. Maintaining good verbal communications with the patient throughout the examination.

The whole video has been broken down by IHE, with the permission of its producers, into three sections to facilitate its storage and viewing on YouTube:

• Part I introduces the examination process and outlines the major steps and key considerations.
  http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=by3cBYXxXew
• Part II walks viewers through the examination in detail.
  http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=YcivUFHpKo4
• Part III reviews the examination, highlighting key elements.
  http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=rF3fvvbEP2E

Download a description of the three-minute examination video (jpg format).

Low Back Pain Companion Document

This document was created to help clinicians provide more detailed explanations to those patients seeking information on lumbar spine interventional radiology procedures.

• Radiological Diagnostic and Therapeutic Interventions Directed to Lumbar Spine Pathology
   

Patient Resources
 

Low Back Pain Instructional YouTube Videos

As part of its work on the Alberta Ambassador Guideline Adaptation Program, IHE teamed up with Alberta Innovates - Health Solutions to produce the following videos on low back pain.

• Acute Low Back Pain Video:
  What to do with Low Back Pain? Get Back At It!
  https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=lkPv72O9ums
• Chronic Low Back Pain Video:
  Living Well with Chronic Low Back Pain
  https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=B20hz2f2Sqk
   

Chronic Pain Instructional YouTube Video

• Chronic Pain Video:
  Self-management for Chronic Pain
  https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=c-ShyHuo_nM
   

Patient Back Pain Brochures – So Your Back Hurts ...

Learn what works, what doesn't, and how to help yourself. These brochures contain important facts about back pain and answer some commonly asked questions about back pain.

• Acute Low Back Pain
• Chronic Low Back Pain