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Low back pain with left leg pain after lifting - GP

CurtinYear 510 min + 2 min readingMusculoskeletal & rheumatologyStandardPre-internship
  • Focused examination (lumbar spine with lower limb neurological examination)
  • Dx
  • Initial Mx

Ready

2 min reading, 10 min station, warning at 2 min

Focus the timer and press Space to start or pause.

Station - Instructions for candidate

You are a final-year medical student on placement in a general practice in Mount Pleasant.

Kosta Georgiou, a 42-year-old double bass player, was well until nine days ago, when he felt a sudden twist in his lower back while lifting an amplifier; pain then ran down his left leg. He is in the consulting room for you to assess.

Your tasks are to:

  1. Perform a focused examination of the patient's lower back and both lower limbs, including a neurological assessment of the legs. Describe to the examiner what you are doing; relevant findings will be provided.
  2. Tell the examiner your provisional diagnosis and the history and examination findings that support it.
  3. Outline an initial management plan: the analgesia you would use and discuss, the referral you would make, and the safety-net advice for this patient.
  • You do NOT need to take a formal history; brief questions relevant to the examination are fine.
  • You do NOT need to request imaging or laboratory tests.
  • You do NOT need to summarise your findings to the examiner.
  • Examination findings are provided by the examiner when you describe the relevant step.

This is a 10-minute station, with 2 minutes of reading time.

Ask the examiner

Solo practice: say out loud what you would ask for, then choose the category. Names appear only after you commit, and a result is revealed only when you ask for it.

Generated by AI for practice; check doses and pathways against eTG / AMH before relying on them.