“What will they do in the emergency room for severe back pain?”
I am a 50 year old male. I want to know what will they do in the emergency room for severe back pain?
3 Answers
It will depend on certain symptoms- if you have loss of bowel and bladder control or loss of feeling in a leg they will do a CT scan or MRI and assess for a surgical emergency. If there is just pain, and no numbness or tingling in the legs, the ER will often give a shot of Toradol, and anti inflammatory and send a patient home with antiinflammatories (if patient does not have any history of heart failure or bleeding stomach ulcers) and a muscle relaxant if appropriate. xrays would be done if there was trauma of some form.
Determine neurological function, treat the pain, determine if imaging is necessary (most times it’s not).
They will try to rule out emergent sources of pain and treat you appropriately, but if your vital signs are normal and you can walk, you may be placed after more emergent cases.
