Examination of a 40-year-old with Mechanical Back Pain course for GPs

This session uses a video clip to demonstrate how to carry out a focused, problem-based physical examination on a patient presenting with acute mechanical back pain in primary care.

This session was reviewed by Khyati Bakhai and last updated in July 2018.

Learning Objectives

By the end of this session you will be able to:

• Describe an appropriate problem-based examination for a man presenting with acute low back pain
• Carry out a careful examination of the back to help exclude serious pathology

Back pain is the largest single cause of loss of working hours in both manual and sedentary workers. It is also a common presenting symptom in general practice. General practitioners (GPs) need to be able to choose an appropriate problem-based examination to be able to make a diagnosis and exclude serious pathology.