Table 1

Red Flags [17]

HISTORY
PHYSICAL EXAMINATION

Cancer
Saddle anesthesia
Unexplained weight loss
Loss of anal sphincter tone
Immunosuppression
Major motor weakness in lower extremities
Prolonged use of steroids
Fever
Intravenous drug use
Vertebral tenderness
Urinary tract infection
Limited spinal range of motion
Pain that is increased or unrelieved by rest
Neurologic findings persisting beyond one month
Fever

Significant trauma related to age (e.g., fall from a height or motor vehicle accident in a young patient, minor fall or heavy lifting in a potentially osteoporotic or older patient or a person with possible osteoporosis)

Bladder or bowel incontinence

Urinary retention (with overflow incontinence)


Pringle and Wyatt Chiropractic & Osteopathy 2006 14:8   doi:10.1186/1746-1340-14-8