Back pain
type of pain felt in the back
Back pain (Latin: dorsalgia) is pain felt in the back. It may be classified as neck pain (cervical), middle back pain (thoracic), lower back pain (lumbar) or coccydynia (tailbone or sacral pain) based on the segment affected. The lumbar region is the most commonly affected area. An episode of back pain may be acute, subacute or chronic depending on the duration. The pain may be characterized as a dull ache, shooting or piercing pain or a burning sensation. Discomfort can radiate to the arms and hands as well as the legs or feet, and may include numbness or weakness in the legs and arms.
The majority of back pain is nonspecific and idiopathic. Common underlying mechanisms include degenerative or traumatic changes to the discs and facet joints, which can then cause secondary pain in the muscles and nerves and referred pain to the bones, joints and extremities. Diseases and inflammation of the gallbladder, pancreas, aorta and kidneys may also cause referred pain in the back. Tumors of the vertebrae, neural tissues and adjacent structures can also manifest as back pain.
The public source identifies “Back pain” as type of pain felt in the back. This brief keeps that definition visible, then builds a research path around Back, pain and type.
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The citation trail is more important than the brevity of the summary: it shows where individual claims can be examined in context. The source revision retrieved here is dated May 26, 2026. The linked authority identifier is Q5781808. The Library of Congress control number is sh85010795. 1 of 1 selected statements include explicit references; 0 carry qualifiers and 0 use preferred rank.
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This entry incorporates text from “Back pain” on English Wikipedia. Contributors are listed in the page history. Text is available under the Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 4.0 License. Selected authority identifiers and statements are retrieved from Wikidata under CC0; their references and qualifiers remain part of the verification path.