ArticleJournal of the American Geriatrics Society2011
Nonsurgical treatment of lumbar disk herniation: are outcomes different in older adults?
Article in Journal of the American Geriatrics Society, 2011. The graph could read no effect estimate from its abstract, so it casts no vote on the map. Cited by 7 papers.
What it found
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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.
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Who cites it
7 citing papers in PubMed, 21 citations in OpenAlex.
- Recurrence of Pain After Usual Nonoperative Care for Symptomatic Lumbar Disk Herniation: Analysis of Data From the Spine Patient Outcomes Research Trial.PM & R : the journal of injury, function, and rehabilitation · 2016Trial
- Prognostic factors for treatment success of conservative management and role for physiotherapy in radicular pain caused by a lumbar disc herniation: a systematic review.Brain & spine · 2025Article
- Predicting decompression surgery by applying multimodal deep learning to patients' structured and unstructured health data.BMC medical informatics and decision making · 2023Article
- Nonoperative treatment for lumbosacral radiculopathy: what factors predict treatment failure?Clinical orthopaedics and related research · 2015Observational
- Evidence-based prognostication in a case of sciatica.The Journal of the Canadian Chiropractic Association · 2015Article
- A method for quantitative measurement of lumbar intervertebral disc structures: an intra- and inter-rater agreement and reliability study.Chiropractic & manual therapies · 2013Article
- Recurrence of radicular pain or back pain after nonsurgical treatment of symptomatic lumbar disk herniation.Archives of physical medicine and rehabilitation · 2012Article
Corrections and comments
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Authors and funding
9 authors at 5 institutions in 2 countries.
Funding
Abstract
objectivesTo determine whether older adults (aged ≥ 60) experience less improvement in disability and pain with nonsurgical treatment of lumbar disk herniation (LDH) than younger adults (< 60).
designProspective longitudinal comparative cohort study.
settingOutpatient specialty spine clinic.
participantsOne hundred thirty-three consecutive patients with radicular pain and magnetic resonance-confirmed acute LDH (89 younger, 44 older).
interventionNonsurgical treatment customized for the individual patient. MEASUREMENTS: Patient-reported disability on the Oswestry Disability Index (ODI), leg pain intensity, and back pain intensity were recorded at baseline and 1, 3, and 6 months. The primary outcome was the ODI change score at 6 months. Secondary longitudinal analyses examined rates of change over the follow-up period.
resultsOlder adults demonstrated improvements in ODI (range 0-100) and pain intensity (range 0-10) with nonsurgical treatment that were not significantly different from those seen in younger adults at 6 month follow-up, with or without adjustment for potential confounders. Adjusted mean improvement in older and younger adults were 31 versus 33 (P = .63) for ODI, 4.5 versus 4.5 (P = .99) for leg pain, and 2.4 versus 2.7 for back pain (P = .69). A greater amount of the total improvement in leg pain and back pain in older adults was noted in the first month of follow-up than in younger adults.
conclusionThese preliminary findings suggest that the outcomes of LDH with nonsurgical treatment were not worse in older adults (≥ 60) than in younger adults (< 60). Future research is warranted to examine nonsurgical treatment for LDH in older adults.
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