What should I do if I have an acute lumbar sprain? How to treat acute lumbar sprain?

Acute lumbar sprain is an acute trauma to the lumbar muscles, ligaments, fascia, and posterior joints caused by lifting excessive objects, poor posture, excessive or improper exercise, including various soft tissue tears, bleeding, muscle spasms, and synovial incarceration of the facet joints. So how do you treat acute lumbar sprain?

1. Diagnostic basis

1. It is generally more common in young and middle-aged manual laborers, athletes, long-distance truck drivers or taxi drivers who sit for long periods of time or whose waists are subjected to long-term vibrations, middle-aged women, and those with abnormalities in the posterior joints and lumbar sacral angles. It often occurs due to sudden changes in body position or bending over to bear weight. In severe cases, it may be accompanied by tears in the lumbar vertebral articular process capsule and even fractures of the articular process and spinous process.

2. Low back pain (or accompanied by a locking feeling), forced forward tilt of the waist, limited movement, and difficulty walking; in more serious cases, the waist is stiff and painful, and even the slightest activity or even talking and breathing can cause unbearable low back pain. There may be a popping sound or tearing sensation in the lower back when injured, and severe pain in the lower back occurs immediately after the injury.

3. Palpate the stiffness and muscle spasm in the waist, and the change of the physiological curvature of the spine. There is tenderness beside the spinous process, between the spinous processes, lumbosacral joints, erector spinae muscles or transverse processes; there are generally no signs of nerve root irritation such as lower limb pain or numbness; positive waist and knee flexion tests indicate injury to the interspinous ligament or lumbosacral and iliac lumbar ligaments.

4. Lumbar spine anteroposterior and lateral X-rays should be taken to exclude bony changes and further analyze the lumbar degeneration to provide a basis for selecting massage techniques. Some patients can also have double oblique X-rays.

2. Syndrome Classification

1. Qi stagnation and blood stasis: After sprains or heavy weight bearing, there is severe pain in the waist, lumbar muscle spasm, the waist cannot be straightened, and it is difficult to bend, extend, and turn. The tongue is dark red or has petechiae, the tongue coating is thin, and the pulse is tight and stringy.

2. Vertebral dislocation: After a sudden change in body position, low back pain is accompanied by a locking or dislocation sensation, the waist is straightened, and movement is difficult. The tongue is pale red with thin coating, and the pulse is tight and stringy.