The Back Story on Spine Care by Dr. Drew A. Bednar is written in layperson’s terms and is filled with insights on caring for your back and neck. Bednar is a founding member of the Canadian Spine Society and a Professor of Orthopedics at McMaster University, and the book is a compilation of case notes and topical essays relating to the spine. Divided into sections, Bedar organizes his notes according to Primary Care Myths, Misdiagnoses and Missed Referrals; When Surgeons Fail Their Patients; and Spine Care Solutions.
Astonishingly frank, Bednar makes no excuses for colleagues who have not kept up with the research and best practice treatments related to spine care. The case studies he references in specific narrative detail provide clear demonstrations of professional incompetence, ineptitude and ignorance. The overall objective of the book is not to undermine other practitioners, however, but rather to focus on providing the reader with enough information to seek ways of relieving pain. Bednar maintains that patients should utilize their prerogative to seek different treatment options via self-advocacy.
One of the essential ingredients for an accurate diagnosis, according to Bednar, is contingent upon the doctors asking the right questions and patients providing detailed information:
All for want of doctors asking a few simple questions of their patients and the common lack of spine care knowledge in the general medical field. If you’re not complaining about how sore or numb you are, your doctor might never know. So speak up and give them as much information as you can. And when there is something wrong, a good doctor asks you some questions about that: What hurts? Where are you numb? How did it start? Where and when are your symptoms worsened or relieved?
As an interesting aside, Bednar’s approach relies greatly on the importance of taking a patient’s medical history, as first established by Canadian medical pioneer, Sir William Osler, professor at the McGill University Faculty of Medicine, one of four founders of John Hopkins School of Medicine in Baltimore, and later a Professor of Medicine at Oxford University.
As part of an overview of spine care provided by the author, at the end of many case histories, Bednar includes a summative analysis he refers to as Spine Crimes. These are quite often condemnatory evaluations of a patient’s treatment:
With great power comes great responsibility. No doctor should ever be too busy or too important to take a short history from his or her patient or to examine them a bit. If that had been done at the very first ER visit, or even by the family doctor before that, the red flags might have prompted an early scan of the right part of the back…
Another example of such notes:
Once I operated on three people in one month who had ineffective hip replacements – ineffective because the real problem was upper lumbar stenosis…
Peppered throughout the book are key pieces of what Bednar considers to be common sense advice. For instance:
Get those X-rays done with the patient standing up. Most patients don’t hurt when they lie down, and serious conditions like collapsed spine or scoliosis may not be detected without having the patient stand up.
And:
These long-suffering people are frequently referred to pain clinics as their only option, to have their pain managed in a variety of ways. I hate that term, managed. We’d never “manage” your painful hip or knee or shoulder or belly or chest – we’d figure out what hurts and correct it to relieve your pain. We’d never say “take these meds” or “get those shots” for the rest of your life to those people, and you the patient would never accept such direction from us. But in spine care it happens all the time.
A particularly interesting chapter for those with back pain is Chapter 24, Common “Red Flags” in Spine Care. Bednar provides a checklist of sorts for those struggling with back pain. He cautions:
“If nothing else, this book should have made it clear by now that sometimes your back pain is not just another annoying backache.“
Dr. Bednar
And if you are a patient experiencing any of these symptoms, be a strong advocate for yourself – insist that your doctor and other medical providers take your pain seriously. Give them as much information as you can, ask for diagnostic tests and push for referrals to specialists if need be. If nothing else, this book should have made it clear by now that sometimes your back pain is not just another annoying backache.
Near the conclusion of the book, Bednar includes what he refers to as essential low back advice to the healthy patient (or those with minor symptoms).
Think about keeping straight, 24/7/365. That means being aware of keeping your spine straight whatever you are doing and not just when literally standing straight.
The Back Story on Spine Care is filled with important information about caring for your back and neck and learning how to advocate for the best treatment options. The case studies, in particular, will assist readers in finding commonalities in a list of symptoms so as to be aware of potential complications. While many self-help books often give readers just enough knowledge to do themselves a harm, this is not the case with Bednar’s measured approach to providing information, as his emphasis is on consumer advocacy and not magical thinking about treatment solutions. Highly recommended.
Lucy E.M. Black (she/her/hers) is the author of The Marzipan Fruit Basket, Eleanor Courtown, Stella’s Carpet, The Brickworks and Class Lessons: Stories of Vulnerable Youth. A Quilting of Scars will be released October 2025. Her award-winning short stories have been published in Britain, Ireland, USA and Canada. She is a dynamic workshop presenter, experienced interviewer and freelance writer. She lives with her partner in the small lakeside town of Port Perry, Ontario, the traditional territory of the Mississaugas of Scugog Island, First Nations.
Drew Bednar, MD, is a founding member of the Canadian Spine Society and the first clinical professor of orthopedics at McMaster University in Hamilton, Ontario. His primary clinical care interest is in the evolution and delivery of seamless, effective, uncomplicated, and outcomes-predictable adult surgical spine care. He lives in Ancaster, Ontario.
- Publisher : ECW Press (Oct. 24 2023)
- Language : English
- Paperback : 328 pages
- ISBN-10 : 1770417281
- ISBN-13 : 978-177041728
