Experts advise on back pain

Mar 14 2008 by Henryk Zientek, Huddersfield Daily Examiner

TACTICS for tackling lower back pain will be discussed at a conference in Huddersfield – in a bid to reduce the millions of working days lost to the condition.

A panel of experts will be on hand to advise on ways to deal with lower back pain, including physiotherapy and surgical procedures, while an exhibition will show some of the equipment and facilities available to sufferers.

Emmanuel Tolessa, a consultant orthopaedic and trauma surgeon practising in Huddersfield and Elland, said: “This is an open exhibition at which we will be welcoming members of the public as well as employers who want to minimise the losses which absence from work caused through lower back pain can cause.”

The event takes place between 10am-2pm on Monday at the Media Centre, Northumberland Street. It will be opened by Kirklees councillor Julie Stewart.

A spokesman for event organiser Agape Health said: “Low back pain is one of the most common and debilitating illnesses affecting adults of all ages.

“As many as one in six work-related sickness absences are due to bad backs and it is estimated that the overall cost of back pain to the NHS, business and the economy amounts to £5bn a year.

“More efforts to reduce flare-up of lower back pain could improve work productivity.”