Musculoskeletal Medicine

Neck and back pain are common symptoms which vary from the trivial to the incapacitating. Conventional medical textbooks concentrate disproportion­ ately on those causes which have clear-cut diagnostic patterns and pathological features demonstrable by investigations. Discussions of treatment often overemphasize the importance of the tiny minority of patients who proceed to surgery. Real life is very different. The majority of patients who consult their general practitioners do not suffer from