The annual general meeting was held at Empire Hotel in May 2011.
The meeting started off with a talk by the President of the Arthritis Foundation of Malaysia, Dr Amir Azlan Zain.
The talk concentrated on back pain, a very common condition that can affect up to three quarters of all of us within our lifetime. It was stressed that the most common cause of back pain is muscular and that a combination of rest, targetted exercise and careful use of painkillers will resolve the great majority of cases. Surgery is very rarely needed for back pain, and usually only if there is evidence of nerve involvement. Nerve involvement is felt as shooting pain down one leg usually all the way down to the foot. In this case, leg pain is more pronounced than the back pain. ‘Nasty’ causes of back pain such as infection or cancer make up less than 1% of all back pain presentation and these serious causes are usually apparent as ‘red flag’ symptoms picked up on clinical history alone.
This was followed by a short talk by our physiotherapist.
The annual general meeting then got underway. A full report of the AGM will follow. The executive committee was then elected for the term 2011-2013.