Unusual causes of back pain in athletes.

Typical causes of back pain in the athlete include muscle strain, intervertebral disc injury, interspinous bursitis, and spondylolysis. If initial evaluation does not indicate that any of these potential conditions is the cause, the physician or trainer should consider less common conditions. In this report, we discuss the identification and management of five unusual causes of back pain in the high school and college athlete: (a) disc space collapse after herniated disc excision, (b) sacralization of L5, (c) facet fracture of L5, (d) fracture of the lumbar vertebral apophysis, and (e) interosseous herniation of the lumbar disc.