NASS Seeks Low-Back Pain Guideline Feedback

The North American Spine Society (NASS) wants to know what you think about the diagnosis and treatment of low-back pain.

The organization’s Low-Back Pain Guideline Work Group has drafted a list of clinical questions to be addressed in an evidence-based clinical practice guideline. The guideline addresses seven sections, including:

• Diagnosis
• Imaging
• Medical & Psychological Treatment
• Rehabilitation & Exercise
• Interventional Treatment
• Surgical Treatment and
• Cost-Effectiveness

Questions

Here is an example of the kinds of questions you’ll find from the Diagnosis Work Group

1. In patients with acute or chronic low-back pain, are there specific history or physical examination findings that would indicate the structure causing pain and, therefore, guide treatment?

• Vertebral body
• Intervertebral disc
• Zygapophyseal joint
• Posterior elements
• Sacroiliac joint
• Muscle/tendon

2. In patients with acute or chronic low-back pain, are there history or physical examination findings that would serve as predictors for the recurrence of low-back pain?

3. In patients with acute low-back pain, are there history or physical examination findings that would predict that an episode will resolve within one month?

To view the draft list of clinical questions, click here.

The list is available for public comment until July 14, 2015.

Feedback Instructions

NASS says reviewers are requested to provide feedback on the proposed questions and suggest any additional questions that may be missing that are important to low-back pain patients and their providers. Comments should be submitted to guidelines@spine.org.

All submissions will be reviewed and considered for potential inclusion in the clinical question protocol before a systematic literature search and review is conducted.