What should I do if my back problem does not improve after physiotherapy?

Doctor's Answers 2

Photo of Dr Shee Yan Fong
Dr Shee Yan Fong

Orthopaedic Surgeon

There are 3 main reasons why there is no improvement after physiotherapy treatment for back pain :

  1. incorrect or undiagnosed pathology, e.g. the treatment may concentrate on degenerative discogenic pain but unknown to both the therapist and patient; the pain may be caused by something else like a fracture, infection, cancer in the back or from somewhere else like kidney stones, uterine/ovarian disease (further investigation by your doctor is required).
  2. inadequate treatment, e.g. less than 5 sessions in total, each session less than half an hour; no weekly sessions for at least a month; no daily self-stretching/core-strengthening exercises at home after your physiotherapy, etc.
  3. irreversible worsening of your degenerative disc, leading to either disc rupture and/or unstable spinal bones (spondylolisthesis) with severe nerve compression - may either worsen after your first earlier MRI (hence must repeat MRI again to confirm) or may already be revealed by your MRI to be serious but patient is not keen for surgery (unlikely physiotherapy will help without surgery).

You should get assessed by a spine specialist, who will likely get an MRI done for you.

Similar Questions

How to treat Patellar Instability?

Thank you for the question. It sounds like you are already seeing someone about your knee symptoms and they have given you some reasonable options. In some respects it depends on your symptoms. If you are having recurrent instability and dislocations, then, depending on the frequency and it’s impacting your daily activities, then a surgical treatment maybe appropriate. They might do a lateral release or, if you have a shallow femoral trochlea, your surgeon might try a patella tendon transfer.

Photo of Dr Dinesh Sirisena

Answered By

Dr Dinesh Sirisena

Sport Medicine

How can I get rid of persistent back pain that is not responding to physiotherapy?

Thank you for your email and I am sorry to hear about your ongoing pain symptoms. This can be an issue after surgery even if it does resolve the disc issue/symptoms that you were experiencing. The only way to resolve pain is to assess you and consider the pain generators in the back - unfortunately there can be many. It could be residual pain from degenerative discs, facet joints, nerve irritation, muscular tightness, scar tissue formation and so on.

Photo of Dr Dinesh Sirisena

Answered By

Dr Dinesh Sirisena

Sport Medicine

Ask any health question for free

I’m not so sure about a procedure...

Ask Icon Ask a Question

Join Human

Sign up now for a free Human account to get answers from specialists in Singapore.

Sign Up

Get The Pill

Be healthier with our Bite-sized health news straight in your inbox