Patients are often confused or disappointed when they are told that they are experiencing “non-specific” lower back pain because they understandably do not know what it means. In fairness, it is a generic diagnosis which means; Their condition is not serious We are confident that their pain is not caused by an inflammatory condition, a Read More

Low back pain is so common – over 80% of the population will experience it at some point – that terming it a disease does not really make much sense. Everyone has experienced the common cold and we all get over it within a short period of time and although we clearly feel ill for Read More

At the Broadgate Spine & Joint Clinic we have the largest number of MAST Certified Clinicians of any clinic in the UK. We are seeing an increasing number of patients who come to our clinic in order to determine whether they are candidates for antibiotic therapy. At Broadgate, we scrutinise our patients extremely thoroughly prior Read More

Low back pain is extremely common, affecting 9 out of every 10 of us at some stage in our lives. Back pain is second only to the common cold as a cause of days lost at work. Acupuncture is widely used to treat low back pain and a recent systematic review by the Cochrane Collaboration, Read More

As discussed in earlier articles much of what we know about Modic changes relates to patients suffering with lower back pain. The bacteria have been identified and long term antibiotic treatment has been shown to be highly effective in treating this subset of patients. Modic changes (bone oedema) have been identified on MRI scans for Read More

I have written extensively on the topic of Modic changes and antibiotic treatment in the Broadgate Journal. A few of the articles that I have written are listed below. Modic Changes, a New Disease? Why does Exercise Increase Symptoms in Modic patients? How to identify Modic patients How to become a MAST Certified Clinician By Read More

When interviewing patients with longstanding lower back pain one of the areas that we must focus on is the nature of the patient’s pain, how it “feels”, what if anything relieves it, what worsens it, where exactly is it, what activities are limited and so forth. Determining whether a patient is in fact experiencing back Read More

Much has been written in the popular press about the clinical significance of Modic changes – an MRI finding that has not previously been identified as having clinical importance. Furthermore, it has been demonstrated that many of these patients respond very favourably to long term antibiotic treatment compared to all other conventional treatments and the Read More

Modic changes as seen on MRI are an inflammation/infection in the vertebral body adjacent to the disc – either above/below or both – in patients that have experienced a disc herniation. In some instances the cause of the inflammation is bacterial while in others it is likely to be of mechanical origin. Examples of Modic Read More

The MAST Medical Academy has developed an educational programme and an examination that leads to MAST Certification in order to ensure that clinicians are properly educated in the diagnosis and management of patients who are seeking treatment for Modic changes as seen on MRI scans. Education – Course Content Clinicians are taught; how to differentiate Read More