Has History Taking Become a “History”?

Journal Title: BMH Medical Journal - Year 2017, Vol 4, Issue 1

Abstract

We all know that these days, many spinal surgeries are done for back pain or sometimes spinal fusions are done following spinal canal decompression. We also know that back pain is very common in the general population. We also are aware that the common causes of back pain are anxiety, stress, worry, depression, muscle spasm, flabby muscles, bad posture, referred pain from sacroiliac joint pain, piriformis syndrome, retro peritoneal pathologies, facet joints etc. In addition we all know that MRI is done at the drop of a hat for patients with back pain. We also know that MRI most often shows disc bulges, ligamentum flavum hypertrophy, facet hypertrophy and canal compromise. We also know that these findings are common in many asymptomatic people and are part of a normal aging process. We all seem to know everything, aware of everything and are knowledgeable about everything. But what we don't know or fail to know is that when we face a patient with back pain in our clinic, we forget all that we know! We tend to get influenced by the MRI findings or report and totally ignore a significant part of clinical evaluation. And that significant part is History taking. In no other aspect of medicine does history play such an unequivocal role in decision making as in spine surgery. But this is where most of us stumble, and we see history as a thing of the past. Why bother to waste time on history when we have all the modern gadgets for investigation and treatment at our disposal?

Authors and Affiliations

Haroon M Pillay

Keywords

Related Articles

Paediatric Anxiety Disorders

Anxiety disorders are highly prevalent among children and are associated with serious morbidity. Lifetime prevalence of paediatric anxiety disorders is about fifteen percent. Social phobia, generalized anxiety disorder a...

Guidelines on Treatment of High Blood Cholesterol

In 2013, the American College of Cardiology and the American Heart Association jointly has brought out a new set of guidelines on treatment of high blood cholesterol. These guidelines suggest practices that meet the pati...

Anti GAD65 Encephalopathy Presenting with Reversible Encephalopathy and Orofacial Dyskinesias

Anti GAD65 antibodies have been implicated predominantly in limbic encephalitis in addition to systemic disorders like Type 1 diabetes mellitus. Here a patient presenting with seizures, behavior disturbances, memory and...

Sparganosis - Not uncommon in Calicut, Kerala

Sparganosis is a zoonotic larval cestode infection, rarely reported from India. We report 4 cases of subcutaneous Sparganosis from Calicut between Oct 2010- Jan 2015.

Central Sleep Apnea Presenting As Nocturnal Angina

Sleep disordered breathing is a common under diagnosed problem in patients with cardiac failure. Common forms of sleep disordered breathing seen in patients with cardiac failure are obstructive sleep apnea and central sl...

Download PDF file
  • EP ID EP322749
  • DOI -
  • Views 108
  • Downloads 0

How To Cite

Haroon M Pillay (2017). Has History Taking Become a “History”?. BMH Medical Journal, 4(1), 1-2. https://europub.co.uk/articles/-A-322749