Acute Low Back Pain: What the Multidisciplinary Clinical Practice Guideline Recommends

Physical therapists and physical therapist assistants who see patients with recent-onset low back pain in outpatient, primary care, emergency department, or direct-access settings, and who want a clear account of what a new multidisciplinary guideline concluded about imaging, self-care, exercise-based physical therapy, manual therapy, medications, and opioids.

Physical therapists and physical therapist assistants; also relevant to rehabilitation staff and clinical educators who field questions about early imaging and early referral for acute low back pain.

Intended audience

Physical Therapy

Level

Intermediate

Delivery format

Online, asynchronous, self-paced course: interactive reading with audio or video, and a scored post-test.

Based on

This course is based entirely on a single source: Skelly AC, Kansagara D, Oswald J, Chou R, for the Acute Low Back Pain Guideline Project. Assessment and Treatment of Acute Low Back Pain: A Multidisciplinary Clinical Practice Guideline. Pain Medicine, advance article, published by Oxford University Press on behalf of the American Academy of Pain Medicine.

The guideline was produced by a multidisciplinary guideline development group working from a registered systematic review conducted by the Pacific Northwest Evidence-based Practice Center at Oregon Health & Science University with Aggregate Analytics, Inc. The group used GRADE methodology to rate the certainty of evidence and to formulate recommendations. The project was financially supported by the U.S. Food and Drug Administration; the guideline states that the funders had no decision-making role in the systematic review, data collection, analysis, or interpretation, and no approval privilege over the recommendations.

Every finding, recommendation, and figure described in this course traces to that document. Nothing has been added from other literature or from the course author’s clinical opinion.

After completing this course, you will be able to:

1. State what the guideline recommends regarding routine imaging for patients presenting with atraumatic acute low back pain, and name the circumstances under which the guideline says imaging should be obtained.
2. Describe the self-management and clinical management options the guideline endorses for acute low back pain, including where exercise-based physical therapy, psychologically informed physical therapy, and manipulation and mobilization appear.
3. Explain the guideline's position on opioids for acute low back pain and name limitations the authors identified in the underlying evidence.

1. Start Here: how this course works and what the source document is
2. Podcast: Acute Low Back Pain, Guideline in Brief (about nine minutes)
3. Who the Guideline Is For and How It Defines Acute Low Back Pain
4. How the Guideline Was Built: Evidence Review, GRADE, and Consensus
5. Imaging, Self-Care, and the Clinical Management Menu
6. Where Physical Therapy Sits: Early Referral, Exercise, Manual Therapy, and Risk Stratification
7. What the Authors Say the Evidence Cannot Yet Answer
8. Key Takeaways
9. Post-test (5 questions, 80% to pass, retakes allowed) and course evaluation

Quinn Millington, PT, DPT, ECS is the instructor of record: the licensed clinician who reviewed this course and signed off on it. The name and credentials print on the certificate.

Disclosures. This course was developed by The ConEd Solution, which has a financial interest in its sale. No outside funding or sponsorship was received. The instructor of record has no affiliation with the authors of the source publication or their institutions.

This course awards 0.5 contact hours (30 min). How you earn them:

1. Complete the course. Every lesson, in order.
2. Pass the post-test. Score 80% or higher. Retakes are allowed.
3. Complete the evaluation. A short form rating each learning objective and the course.
4. Download your certificate. It is issued on completion and stays available in My Account.

The episode time is its measured length. Reading, post-test and evaluation times are estimates.

This course is designed to satisfy the quality requirements state boards set for continuing education. Requirements vary by state, and confirming that a course fits your renewal is up to you. Each state’s own acceptance statement is in the credit panel on this page.

1. This course is based entirely on a single source: Skelly AC, Kansagara D, Oswald J, Chou R, for the Acute Low Back Pain Guideline Project. Assessment and Treatment of Acute Low Back Pain: A Multidisciplinary Clinical Practice Guideline. Pain Medicine, advance article, published by Oxford University Press on behalf of the American Academy of Pain Medicine.
2. The guideline was produced by a multidisciplinary guideline development group working from a registered systematic review conducted by the Pacific Northwest Evidence-based Practice Center at Oregon Health & Science University with Aggregate Analytics, Inc. The group used GRADE methodology to rate the certainty of evidence and to formulate recommendations. The project was financially supported by the U.S. Food and Drug Administration; the guideline states that the funders had no decision-making role in the systematic review, data collection, analysis, or interpretation, and no approval privilege over the recommendations.
3. Every finding, recommendation, and figure described in this course traces to that document. Nothing has been added from other literature or from the course author's clinical opinion.