Is spinal surgery effective for back pain?

What it found

Each row is one number read from the abstract, on the scale the paper reported it, with its interval. Left of the dashed line favours the treatment, right favours the comparator. Under each row is the sentence it came from. New to these charts? A ten-minute tutorial.

The abstract states no effect estimate the extractor could read, or names no intervention and outcome on the map, so this paper lights no cell and moves no belief. It is still indexed, cited and linked below.

The trial behind it

Trials whose registry record cites this paper, or whose number appears in the abstract. A trial that started after this paper was published is citing it as background, not reporting it.

Neither the registry nor the abstract names a trial number. If this is a trial report, that itself is worth knowing.

Who cites it

4 citing papers in PubMed, 5 citations in OpenAlex.

1. Protocol for a Prospective Cohort Study on Determinants of Outcomes in Lumbar Radiculopathy Surgery.Healthcare (Basel, Switzerland) · 2025
   Article
2. Development and validation of a prediction tool for pain reduction in adult patients undergoing elective lumbar spinal fusion: a multicentre cohort study.European spine journal : official publication of the European Spine Society, the European Spinal Deformity Society, and the European Section of the Cervical Spine Research Society · 2020
   Article
3. Editorial: The Sacredness of Surgery.Clinical orthopaedics and related research · 2019
   Article
4. Medicolegal Sidebar: Unnecessary Medical Care and Physician Liability.Clinical orthopaedics and related research · 2018
   Article

Corrections and comments

PubMed lists nothing against this paper. Absence here is not a guarantee, only a check that was made.

Authors and funding

2 authors at 2 institutions in 2 countries.

Funding

No grant is acknowledged in the PubMed record.

Abstract