Diagnosis is the cornerstone of clinical medicine. It is the cognitive process of determining the nature and circumstances of a medical condition or, more essentially, the process of identifying the source and cause of a patient’s complaint.

The degree to which the purpose is achieved depends on the strategies employed in the process and the quality of the evidence on which decisions are based in discriminating between conditions that might be contributing to the patient’s complaint. Without a satisfactory diagnosis, patients and their clinicians remain in the dark about the presenting complaints, and management is capricious.

The source of pain is the actual anatomical site from which pain arises. As noted above, the source of pain may not be detectable with any reliability after clinical assessment and imaging tests. ·pain management can be many things.

In some instances it is not necessary to know the precise source of pain. for example, if the treatment is prescription of medication and general exercise, diagnosis other than to rule out a serious condition is not necessary.

On the other hand, if the treatment is to be spinal surgery such as discectomy, or hip replacement, it is important to know the source of pain. In complex pain presentations, interventional diagnostic tests may be required if more specialised and complex target specific treatments are to be applied.·

The cause of pain is the pathological process leading to a particular structure being responsible for this pain. examples of the causes include infection, where pain is caused by chemical irritation of nociceptors and by direct compression of local nerves, fracture and inflammation. ·