Differential diagnosis of endometriosis in a young adult woman with nonspecific low back pain

Mark R Troyer, Troyer MR
Physical therapy · 2007 · vol. 87(6) , pp. 801–810 · doi:10.2522/ptj.20060141 · PMID:17442838 · W2144508442
Review OA: bronze CC0 ⤵ 10 in-corpus citations
📄 Open PDF View on OpenAlex View on PubMed View at publisher
⚙ AI-generated summary by gemini-2.5-flash-lite, 2026-06-07 ⓘ

This case study describes a young woman with nonspecific low back pain diagnosed with endometriosis and an ovarian cyst, whose pain resolved after surgical intervention and medical treatment.

One-sentence paraphrase of the abstract; not a substitute for reading it. No clinical advice. How this works

Abstract

BACKGROUND AND PURPOSE: Endometriosis is a common gynecological disorder that can cause musculoskeletal symptoms and manifest as nonspecific low back pain. CASE DESCRIPTION: The patient was a 25-year-old woman who reported the sudden onset of severe left-sided lumbosacral, lower quadrant, buttock, and thigh pain. The physical therapist examination revealed findings suggestive of a pelvic visceral disorder during the diagnostic process. The physical therapist referred the patient for medical consultation, and she was later diagnosed by a gynecologist with endometriosis and a left ovarian cyst. OUTCOMES: The patient underwent laser laparoscopy and excision of the ovarian cyst followed by a regimen of gonadotropin-releasing hormone agonists. The intervention resulted in abolition of the lower quadrant pain and a significant reduction of the back and leg pain that enabled the patient to return to her normal activities. DISCUSSION: A thorough physical therapist examination that considers all of the musculoskeletal, visceral, and psychosocial components is essential to identify pelvic disorders such as endometriosis and other disease processes during the differential diagnosis of nonspecific low back pain. Medical consultation is necessary to provide proper diagnosis and intervention of endometriosis, but physical therapists also may have an important role in the identification of endometriosis and the management of the musculoskeletal aspects of the disorder.

My notes (saved in your browser only)

Condition tags

endometriosischronic_pelvic_pain

MeSH descriptors

Endometriosis Endometriosis Low Back Pain Physical Therapy Modalities Physical Therapy Modalities Adult Adult Diagnosis, Differential Diagnosis, Differential Endometriosis Endometriosis Endometriosis Female Female Humans Humans Laparoscopy Laparoscopy Low Back Pain Low Back Pain

Citation neighborhood (2-hop)

Papers in the corpus that this work cites (lower rings, blue) and that cite this one (upper rings, green). Dot size scales with the paper's in-corpus citation count — bigger dot = more influential within the endo/adeno field. Click a dot to open that paper. Outer rings show 2-hop neighbours — papers reached through the immediate citers/citees. [ collapse to 1-hop ]

References (72)

Cited by (10)

Source provenance

europepmc
last seen: 2026-10-16T06:09:50.462052+00:00
openalex
last seen: 2026-06-10T17:14:06.276822+00:00
pubmed
last seen: 2026-10-08T21:04:17.981133+00:00
License: CC0 · commercial use OK