Low Back Pain

Low back pain is an extremely prevalent condition affecting the entire world’s population and occurring in all age groups (Hartvigsen et al., 2018). While numerous definitions have been proposed by the American College of Physicians or by the NIH, we will adopt the definition proposed by the HAS (French National Authority for Health) in 2019: “Low back pain is defined as pain located between the thoracolumbar hinge and the inferior gluteal sulcus. This low back pain may be associated with radiculalgia, corresponding to pain in one or both lower limbs in one or more dermatomes.” It is important to note that common low back pain does not involve any red flags (discussed later in this article). Likewise, although the term “non-specific low back pain” is frequently used in English-language literature, the term “common low back pain” would appear to be better suited to daily practice than “non-specific low back pain” (HAS, 2019a).