From our Healthy Highlights series: Dartmouth-Hitchcock providers Colleen Olson and Dr. Adam Pearson explain why patients rarely need surgery for lower back pain. Dr. Pearson says that lower back pain that has been going on for less than three months will improve on its own, “no matter what you do” in more than 90% of cases. “The vast majority of patients with short-term lower back pain do not need surgery,” he says. To learn more about taking care of your back, visit http://bit.ly/dh_backpain. To hear more Healthy Highlights episodes, visit http://bit.ly/healthy_highlights.