Spine Talk

On any given day, the waiting room of Texas Back Institute is filled with people who are experiencing back pain. In most cases, these patients are over 50 and have age-related causes for their pain, ranging from arthritis, wear and tear from work or other conditions that affect their spine. By and large, back pain is an older person’s problem. However, a form of chronic back pain that affects younger patients has received more discussion and research among spine specialists. This disease is ankylosing spondylitis. According to a report in Medical News, “Ankylosing spondylitis (AS) is a painful and progressive form of spinal arthritis and symptoms of inflammatory back pain often first present in people before age 35. It typically begins in the late teens and early twenties and in severe cases may result in fusing spinal vertebrae and may cause structural damage to hips and other joints. Often misdiagnosed as "just back pain" or undifferentiated arthritis, AS is a systemic inflammatory disease that, in additio