Slavishly following long-held guidelines for diagnosing the cause of arthritis-related back pain is resulting in excessive tests, delays in pain relief and wasteful spending of as much as $10,000 per patient, new Johns Hopkins-led research suggests.

FRIDAY, July 23 (HealthDay News) -- Doctors add as much as $10,000 to patient's medical costs by strictly following guidelines regarding the diagnosis of arthritis-related back pain, a new study suggests.

By one recent estimate, Americans are spending a staggering $86 billion a year in care for aching backs from MRIs to pain pills to nerve blocks to acupuncture. That research found little evidence that the population got better as the bill soared over the past decade.

New Century Spine Centers acquires San Diegos top spinal decompression specialist Dr. Michael Pritsker DC and introduces new state of the art non-surgical treatment for back pain, sciatica, arthritis and disc injuries.

A study of Medicare patients shows that costlier, more complex spinal fusion surgeries are on the rise and sometimes done unnecessarily for a common lower back condition caused by aging and barthritis/b.