I am a director of rehabilitation in new hampshire and we do deal with this at my practice quite often. The condition is simply defined as forward slippage of one of your vertebrae with relation to the other. It typically occurs in the low back region or lumbar spine. The severity is determined by a grading of 1-5 depending on how much of the vertebrae has slipped forward from 25% to completely off the other vertebrae. It most often occurs in people who engage in heavy activity like weight lifting, laborious work, or physical activity. It can also happen from blunt force events like falling off a ladder and landing on your feet or can be repetitive like the trauma that a linebacker receives while playing football.

You may find pain, abnormal back curvature, weakness in your legs, loss of bowel and bladder function, back spasms, tight hamstrings....Just to name a few.

You should probably engage in bed rest for 2-3 days after the injury to settle down the pain and then engage in a guided therapy program. If the pain remains severe, you might have a brace issued to you for some postural support and pain reduction...That will be at the discretion of your doctor and therapist. Surgery is certainly the last option and only done if symptoms worsen or do not improve during your course of therapy. Feel free to ask any more questions that you may have about this. I am new to the board, but not new to treatment of these conditions.