Acute vs. chronic back pain. Acute is short term back pain and chronic is long term back pain. Acute back pain can last anywhere from a few days to a few weeks. Acute pain is often caused by an accident or if you fell. Most of the time acute pain doesn’t need intense treatment. It will go away after a few days. Chronic back pain usually lasts more than 3 months. Chronic back pain is a lot less common than acute back pain. Chronic back pain usually requires surgical treatment, but not always.