Episode 67. Back Pain with Dr Max Kupershmidt
Before proceeding, we apologise for the audio quality in this week's episode. Unfortunately, we experienced some technical difficulties and we will endeavour to resolve these problems in future episodes of Everyday Medicine.
It is estimated that up to 80% of the population will experience back pain sometime in their lives with presentations from adolescent age to the elderly. Back pain is the third most common reason for visits to a medical practitioner and in many instances treatment strategies have already been sought elsewhere from chiropractors, physiotherapist myotherapists, personal trainers and osteopaths.
Radiological interrogation is often required to assist formulation of an appropriate treatment strategy and in this episode we discuss a radiological perspective of this problem with radiologist Dr Max Kupershmidt who has specialised in procedural radiology and musculoskeletal imaging.
Max completed radiology training at the Alfred Hospital in 2006 and worked there as an interventional radiology fellow before undertaking an Abdominal Imaging Fellowship in Toronto in 2008 . Max has been engaged in private radiology for the last 11 years and was a founding executive and treasurer of ARGANZ as well as running and organising many successful conferences and seminars. In this podcast we also discuss with Max the issue of radiation exposure in radiology noting that the average person may receive the equivalent of 3 mSv of radiation per year and that a plain chest x-ray delivers an equivalent of 7 days of background radiation and standard mammography about 7 weeks of equivalent background radiation. CT exposure with a modern scanner delivers approximately 2.6 years radiation, PET scans about 8 years equivalent exposure and MRI none. It is estimated that the additive lifetime risk from a CT scan from fatal and nonfatal malignancy is about 1 in 1100 (equivalent to the risk of drowning). As medical practitioners we all need to be aware of the exposure risk when ordering investigations particularly in our younger patients where the lifetime risk is very real. Please join this conversation with Max.
References:
Dr Max Kupershmidt: LinkedIn
www.cancer.org Understanding Radiation Risk from Imaging Tests
www.radiologyinfo.org Radiation Dose in Xray and CT Exams
www.racgp.org.au Radiation Safety
To be a guest on the show or provide some feedback, I’d love to hear from you: manager@gihealth.com.au
Dr Luke Crantock MBBS, FRACP, is a gastroenterologist in practice for over 25 years. He is the founder of The Centre for GI Health, based in Melbourne Australia and is passionate about educating General Practitioners and patients on disease prevention and how to manage and improve their digestive health.