How long does musculoskeletal pain last

Myalgia is pain or aches in soft tissues that connect muscles, bones, and organs. Causes include injury, infection, cramp or spasm, loss of blood flow to the muscle, illness, some medications, or tumor.

Many parts of the body can feel the effects, including ligaments, tendons, soft tissues, organs, and bones. Trauma from a fracture or injury is a common cause of bone pain. It can also come from an infection, osteoporosis, tumor spread into a bone, or another systemic illness. Signs include tenderness or ache at the bone site. Tendon and ligament pain is often from a sprain, strain, or inflammation caused by tendinitis or tenosynovitis. Ligaments provide a connection between bones and tendons connect muscles to bone.

Pain in these areas can arise from overuse or an unnatural or sudden movement that causes ligaments or tendons to stretch or tear. Pain in the joints can occur along with swelling, stiffness, and limited range of motion.

These are all symptoms of arthritis. People with arthritis sometimes develop chronic pain , which may present challenges in day-to-day living. Fibromyalgia causes pain in tendons, muscles, and joints throughout the body.

This condition may start with localized pain in the neck and shoulders but become widespread. People with fibromyalgia often experience different kinds of pain in addition to musculoskeletal pain, such as migraine episodes. Nerve compression pain may occur from conditions that put pressure on nerves, such as carpal tunnel syndrome , cubital tunnel syndrome , and tarsal tunnel syndrome. Pressure can be the result of repetitive use , leaning on elbows, or other conditions like arthritis or gout.

Back pain may have no specific cause, or it may be the result of injury or illness. Muscle strain, disc fracture, and inflammation may all result in back pain. It may also come from osteoarthritis or other degenerative conditions, infection, or spinal lesions. Pain in your chest may come from angina, which is caused by the heart muscle not getting enough oxygen.

Digestive issues like acid reflux , inflammation, blood clots in the lungs, and panic attacks might also result in chest pain.

But these are unrelated to musculoskeletal pain. Costochondritis , or inflammation of the cartilage in the rib cage, is one example of musculoskeletal pain in the chest. A patient's occupational history is vital in diagnosing the injury. Pain from these disorders can persist and cause work disabilities if left unchecked, and without secondary prevention strategies in place.

Overuse syndrome of the pediatric population that results in traction apophysitis of the tibial tubercle. Typically occurs during an adolescent growth spurt in young athletes who participate in sports that involve repeated knee flexion and forced extension.

Males are affected more often than females. Diagnosis is clinical; patients typically present with pain, swelling, warmth, and localized tenderness to palpation over the tibial tubercle.

A degenerative joint disorder; prevalence increases with age. The most commonly affected joints are the knee, hip, hands, and lumbar and cervical spine. Patients present with joint pain and stiffness that is typically worse with activity. Radiographs show loss of joint space, subchondral sclerosis, and osteophytes. An acquired, potentially reversible idiopathic lesion of subchondral bone resulting in delamination and sequestration with or without articular cartilage involvement and instability.

Majority of patients are adolescent or young adult athletes. Main joints involved include the knee, ankle, and radiocapitellar joint of the elbow. Variable presentation: traumatic or atraumatic, insidious onset, nonspecific joint pain, exacerbation of symptoms with exercise especially stair or hill climbing , recurrent effusion, catching, or locking.

Vitamin D deficiency is the most common cause. Patients frequently complain of diffuse bony pain with a history of limited sunlight exposure.

Proximal muscle weakness, spinal tenderness to percussion, pseudofractures, and skeletal deformities are found commonly. An inflammatory condition of bone caused by an infecting organism, most commonly Staphylococcus aureus. Severity can be staged depending on the etiology of the infection, its pathogenesis, extent of bone involvement, duration, and host factors particular to the individual patient.

Broadly, bone infection is either hematogenous or contiguous-focus. Asymptomatic until fracture occurs. Patients may report sudden back pain from atraumatic activities such as standing from a seated position, bending forward, or coughing and sneezing. Pain is characteristically exacerbated by movement.

Worsening pain over weeks to months is the first and most common symptom. Pain is usually mild initially, becoming more severe.

It is often reported as more severe at rest and at night. The pain is often described as deep, dull, boring, and relentless. Chronic localized bone remodeling disorder characterized by increased bone resorption, bone formation, and remodeling, which may lead to major long bone and skull deformities. Majority of patients are asymptomatic, but may present with severe pain in long bones and, rarely, in some facial areas.

Patellofemoral pain syndrome is one of the most common disorders of the knee seen in a sports medicine clinic. The causes of patellofemoral problems are multifactorial, including abnormal patellofemoral joint mechanics, lower kinetic chain alterations, and overuse.

Most commonly affects people between 40 and 60 years of age who are overweight or obese. Clinical practice. Plantar fasciitis. To make a diagnosis of plantar fasciitis, the pain must be relieved with rest.

More common in women. Epidemiology of polymyalgia rheumatica in Olmsted County, Minnesota, Arthritis Rheum. Diagnosis, differential diagnosis and treatment of polymyalgia rheumatica.

Drugs Aging. Usually the result of pathology of the knee joint, such as arthritis or a cartilage tear. May present with swelling or pain behind the knee, but most cases are asymptomatic. A popliteal cyst may rupture, leading to severe pain and calf swelling. Chronic inflammatory joint disease associated with psoriasis. Psoriatic arthritis frequently presents with a pattern of monoarticular or oligoarticular joint involvement. In patients with multiple joints involved, the pattern lacks the symmetry of rheumatoid arthritis.

An inflammatory condition that occurs after exposure to certain gastrointestinal and genitourinary infections, particularly Chlamydia species, Campylobacter jejuni , and Salmonella enteritidis. Patients may give a history of an antecedent genitourinary or dysenteric infection 1 to 4 weeks before onset.

Presenting features include systemic symptoms such as fever, peripheral and axial arthritis, enthesitis inflammation where tendons insert into bone , dactylitis swelling of an entire finger or toe , conjunctivitis and iritis, and skin lesions including circinate balanitis and keratoderma blennorrhagicum.

The most common inflammatory arthritis, characterized by symmetric arthritis of the small joints of the hands and feet. A chronic, erosive arthritis that requires aggressive treatment. May be due to blunt force injury, falls, nonaccidental injury, aggressive CPR, severe coughing, athletic activities, or metastatic lesions and primary bone tumors. Deficient mineralization at the growth plate of long bones, resulting in growth retardation.

If the underlying condition is not treated, bone deformity occurs, typically causing bowed legs and thickening of the ends of long bones.

Only occurs in growing children before fusion of the epiphyses, and typically affects wrists, knees, and costochondral junctions. Occurs primarily because of a nutritional deficiency of vitamin D, but can be associated with deficiencies of calcium or phosphorus.

Common shoulder condition, especially in older and active patients. Tears can be symptomatic or asymptomatic. Cause of tear can be traumatic or attritional. Adolescent idiopathic scoliosis is a structural spinal deformity characterized by decompensation of the normal vertebral alignment during rapid skeletal growth in otherwise healthy children.

Back pain is usually minimal or absent at presentation. Significant pain at presentation warrants a careful evaluation for other causes of the spinal deformity. Typically seen in the adolescent age group. Obligatory external rotation on hip flexion is a key exam finding. Can occur as a result of spine trauma, vertebral compression fracture, intervertebral disk herniation, primary or metastatic spinal tumor, or infection. Condition typically resulting from degenerative changes in the lumbar spine.

Neurogenic claudication characterized by back and leg pain and lower-extremity paresthesia, brought on by ambulation and relieved by sitting.

Sport-related injuries may be generally categorized as acute or chronic; the range of medical conditions potentially resulting from sport- or exercise-related injuries is wide. The effects of early mobilisation and immobilisation on the healing process following muscle injuries. Sports Med. A self-limiting inflammatory disorder of the hip that commonly affects young children between 2 and 12 years of age.

Presents acutely with mild to moderate hip pain and limp. Describes several painful disorders of the mandibular joint, including myofascial pain and dysfunction, internal derangement, and osteoarthritis. Typically presents with 4 characteristic features: temporomandibular joint pain, noise in the joint, masticatory muscle tenderness, and limited mandibular movement. General term that describes tendon degeneration characterized by a combination of pain, swelling, and impaired performance.

Common sites include the rotator cuff supraspinatus tendon , wrist extensors lateral epicondyle and pronators medial epicondyle , patellar and quadriceps tendons, and Achilles tendon.

Tenosynovitis of the hand and wrist is a group of entities with a common pathology involving the extrinsic tendons of the hand and wrist and their corresponding retinacular sheaths.

They usually start as tendon irritation manifesting as pain, and can progress into catching and locking when tendon gliding fails. Usually occurs as a result of high-energy trauma e.

May occur spontaneously in patients with osteoporotic, neoplastic, or metabolic disorders of the spine. Lower-extremity torsional abnormalities are common in children. Fractures of the distal radius are the most common fracture in adults. Typically caused by a fall on the outstretched hand.

May be accompanied by fractures of the ulnar styloid, distal ulna and scaphoid. You may be more susceptible to musculoskeletal pain if your muscles aren't strong enough or limber enough. Strength training can better prepare your muscles to deal with aches, strains, and pains, and it can help provide more support to joints like the elbows and knees, and thus prevent injury.

In addition, stretching exercises will keep muscles long and flexible and can help release muscle tension and soreness. Therapeutic massage is an ancient means of treating musculoskeletal pain that continues to be popular today. Massage therapists help relieve pain by pressing and rubbing the muscles and soft tissues of your body. Some forms of massage use long strokes and kneading movements to relax the muscles, while others focus on using pressure to force knotted muscles to let go.

Acupuncture is a form of traditional Chinese medicine, in which thin metal needles are inserted into the skin to relieve musculoskeletal pain. The needles are placed at specific locations on the body to stimulate energy points.

Acupressure operates on the same principle as acupuncture, but involves placing pressure on those points with the fingers rather than inserting needles into them. Some people use relaxation and biofeedback to help control their musculoskeletal pain.

Meditation and other relaxation techniques can reduce stress hormone levels in your body and lower the amount of pain you perceive. Biofeedback can help you perfect your relaxation techniques through the use of devices that display internal body processes like heart rate, blood pressure, and muscle tension.

Biofeedback participants use that real-time data to guide their relaxation. By subscribing you agree to the Terms of Use and Privacy Policy. Health Topics. Health Tools. Pain Management. Reviewed: January 4, Medically Reviewed.