Antibiotics a cure for back pain, a false dawn or a new era?

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

9 citing papers in PubMed.

1. Is the discopathy associated with Modic changes an infectious process? Results from a prospective monocenter study.PloS one · 2019
   Article
2. Ribosomal PCR assay of excised intervertebral discs from patients undergoing single-level primary lumbar microdiscectomy.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 · 2017
   Article
3. Overview: the role of Propionibacterium acnes in nonpyogenic intervertebral discs.International orthopaedics · 2016
   Review
4. Modic Changes and Disc Degeneration Caused by Inoculation of Propionibacterium acnes inside Intervertebral Discs of Rabbits: A Pilot Study.BioMed research international · 2016
   Article
5. Modic (endplate) changes in the lumbar spine: bone micro-architecture and remodelling.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 · 2015
   Article
6. Evaluation of intervertebral disc regeneration with implantation of bone marrow mesenchymal stem cells (BMSCs) using quantitative T2 mapping: a study in rabbits.International orthopaedics · 2015
   Article
7. The Michel Benoist and Robert Mulholland Yearly European Spine Journal Review: a survey of the "surgical and research" articles in the European Spine Journal, 2013.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 · 2014
   Review
8. The Michel Benoist and Robert Mulholland Yearly European Spine Journal Review: a survey of the "medical" articles in the European Spine Journal, 2013.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 · 2014
   Review
9. Should we start treating chronic low back pain with antibiotics rather than with pain medications?The Korean journal of pain · 2013
   Review

Corrections and comments

• Commented on by
  Answer to the Editorial of J. O'Dowd and A. Casey.2013
• Comment on
  Does nuclear tissue infected with bacteria following disc herniations lead to Modic changes in the adjacent vertebrae?2013
• Comment on
  Antibiotic treatment in patients with chronic low back pain and vertebral bone edema (Modic type 1 changes): a double-blind randomized clinical controlled trial of efficacy.2013

Authors and funding

2 authors.

Funding

No grant is acknowledged in the PubMed record.

Abstract

PubMed holds no abstract for this paper.

Indexed as