Consideraciones generales del dolor lumbar agudo

introduction: the low back pain is a very frequent symptom in the medical practice, its causes, the pathophysiological mechanisms and the way to face it. objective: to update reader on the general considerations of acute low back pain. development: besides the intrinsic and extrinsic structures provoking low back pain, there are other elements related to the pathophysiology including the following factors: anatomical, compressive, vascular, immune, inflammatory an neural which will be well described in present paper to know how functioning each in the appearance of chronic and acute low back pain for later to assume our responsibility as physicians in treatment of this illness involving our population. conclusions: the lumbar painful syndrome is frequent in medical consultation. the diagnosis includes the search of alarming signs as manifestation of systemic diseases, cancer, infections, and fractures, among others. however, in most of patients the low back pain is of mechanic vertebral origin with a benign course and may be favorably solved with an appropriate treatment in the primary health care.