1 · Three types, by proportion
Low back pain is an umbrella over roughly three groups: non-specific pain at about 80-90%, then radicular pain, and a smaller slice of facet or mechanical pain.Low back pain is not one disease — it is an umbrella over several different mechanisms. Clinically it splits into roughly three groups: non-specific low back pain is the big one (about 80-90%), then radicular pain (sciatica), and a smaller slice of facet / mechanical pain.The biggest group is exactly the one that gets over-scanned and over-treated. The larger its share, the more it pays to understand the mechanism first, instead of assuming something structural is broken.