The spine journal : official journal of the North American Spine Society
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Low back pain (LBP) is a prevalent and expensive musculoskeletal condition that predominantly occurs in working-age individuals of industrialized nations. Although numerous occupational physical activities have been implicated in its etiology, determining the causation of occupational LBP still remains a challenge. ⋯ A qualitative summary of existing studies was not able to find any high-quality studies that fully satisfied any of the Bradford-Hill causation criteria for occupational pushing or pulling and LBP. Based on the evidence reviewed, it is unlikely that occupational pushing or pulling is independently causative of LBP in the populations of workers studied.
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Lumbar discectomy is one of the most common spine surgical procedures. With the exception of true emergencies (eg, cauda equina syndrome), lumbar discectomy is usually performed as an elective procedure after a prudent trial of nonoperative treatment. Although several studies have compared costs of definitive operative or nonoperative management of lumbar disc herniation, no information has been published regarding the cost of conservative care in patients who ultimately underwent surgical discectomy. ⋯ Charges for preoperative care of patients with lumbar disc herniation are substantial and are split almost evenly between diagnostic charges (outpatient visits, imaging, laboratory studies, and miscellaneous) and therapeutic charges (injections, physical therapy, chiropractic manipulation, and medications). Although a large number of patients will ultimately require surgical intervention, given that many patients will improve with nonoperative therapy, a trial of conservative management is appropriate. Additional studies to identify patients who may ultimately fail nonoperative treatment and would benefit from early discectomy would be beneficial.
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Low back pain (LBP) is a prevalent, costly, and challenging condition to manage. Clinicians must choose among numerous assessment and management options. Several recent clinical practice guidelines (CPGs) on LBP have attempted to inform these decisions by evaluating and summarizing the best available supporting evidence. The quality and consistency of recommendations from these CPGs are currently unknown. ⋯ Recommendations from several recent CPGs regarding the assessment and management of LBP were similar. Clinicians who care for patients with LBP should endeavor to adopt these recommendations to improve patient care. Future CPGs may wish to invite coauthors from targeted clinician user groups, increase patient participation, update their literature searches before publication, conduct their own quality assessment of studies, and consider cost-effectiveness and other aspects in their recommendations more explicitly.
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Low back pain (LBP) is a disorder that commonly affects the working population, resulting in disability, health-care utilization, and a heavy socioeconomic burden. Although the etiology of LBP remains uncertain, occupational activities have been implicated. Evaluating these potentially causal relationships requires a methodologically rigorous approach. Occupational repetitive and/or heavy lifting is widely thought to be a risk factor for the development of LBP. ⋯ This review uncovered several high-quality studies examining a relationship between occupational lifting and LBP, but these studies did not consistently support any of the Bradford-Hill criteria for causality. There was moderate evidence of an association for specific types of lifting and LBP. Based on these results, it is unlikely that occupational lifting is independently causative of LBP in the populations of workers studied. Further research in specific subcategories of lifting would further clarify the presence or absence of a causal relationship.
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Comparative Study
Comparison of prognostic value of different MRI classifications of signal intensity change in cervical spondylotic myelopathy.
Signal intensity (SI) changes of the spinal cord on magnetic resonance imaging (MRI) in cervical spondylotic myelopathy (CSM) are thought to be a predictor of surgical outcome. However, the clinical significance of SI change remains controversial. Although several classifications exist for SI change, there are no previous studies comparing their prognostic significance. ⋯ A classification system of MRI signal changes that accommodates both T1WI and T2WI is more predictive of surgical outcome than those that include T2W SI changes alone. Postoperative MRI is useful to identify late onset of low T1W intensity changes in patients with poor neurological recovery.