ReviewThe Korean journal of pain2013
Should we start treating chronic low back pain with antibiotics rather than with pain medications?
Review in The Korean journal of pain, 2013. The graph could read no effect estimate from its abstract, so it casts no vote on the map. Cited by 11 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.
Neither the registry nor the abstract names a trial number. If this is a trial report, that itself is worth knowing.
Who cites it
11 citing papers in PubMed, 18 citations in OpenAlex.
- Pedicle screw-rod fixation: a feasible treatment for dogs with severe degenerative lumbosacral stenosis.BMC veterinary research · 2015Trial
- Intervertebral disc puncture predisposes the disc to Cutibacterium acnes infection via hematogenous and contiguous routes: a rat model study.Journal of orthopaedic surgery and research · 2026Article
- Efficacy of stepped care treatment for chronic discogenic low back pain patients with Modic I and II changes.Interventional pain medicine · 2023Article
- Antibiotics should not be used for back/leg pain.Acta orthopaedica · 2021Article
- Vertebral Bone Marrow and Endplate Assessment on MR Imaging for the Differentiation of Modic Type 1 Endplate Changes and Infectious Spondylodiscitis.Journal of clinical medicine · 2020Article
- Bacteria: back pain, leg pain and Modic sign-a surgical multicentre comparative 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 · 2019Article
- [Pseudarthrosis and construct failure after lumbar pedicle subtraction osteotomy : Influence of biomechanics, surgical technique, biology and avoidance strategies].Der Orthopade · 2018Review
- Is IL-1β Further Evidence for the Role ofFrontiers in cellular and infection microbiology · 2018Article
- Overview: the role of Propionibacterium acnes in nonpyogenic intervertebral discs.International orthopaedics · 2016Review
- Prospective study using anterior approach did not show association between Modic 1 changes and low grade infection in lumbar spine.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 · 2016Article
- Syndromes with chronic non-bacterial osteomyelitis in the spine.Reumatologia · 2015Article
Corrections and comments
PubMed lists nothing against this paper. Absence here is not a guarantee, only a check that was made.
Authors and funding
1 author at 1 institution in 1 country.
Funding
No grant is acknowledged in the PubMed record.
Abstract
For those of us who have read the 2 recently published articles by a Danish - British research group, it might appear that we are observing an impending paradigm shift on the origins of chronic low back pain. The results of this research indicate, that chronic low back pain associated with bone marrow edema in vertebral endplates that are adjacent to herniated intervertebral discs may be caused by infections with anaerobic bacteria of low virulence. According to these articles, treatment with certain antibiotics is significantly more effective than placebo against this low back pain. If these findings are to hold true in repeat studies by other researchers, they stand to fundamentally change our concepts of low back pain, degenerative disc disease and in consequence the suitable therapies for these entities. It may in fact require pain specialists to become familiarized with the details of antibiotic treatments and their specific risks in order to be able to properly counsel their patients. While this seems hard to believe at first glance, bacteria have been implicated in the pathogenesis of other conditions that do not primarily impose as infectious diseases such as gastric ulcers. While the authors refer to a few previous studies pointing into the same direction, the relevant research is really only from one group of collaborating scientists. Therefore, before we start prescribing antibiotics for chronic low back pain, it is imperative that other researchers in different institutions confirm these results.
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Registered trials
Read under generation 80e0d062 · epoch 390. Bibliography from PubMed, PubMed Central and OpenAlex; grants from NIH RePORTER; trial links from ClinicalTrials.gov; estimates, votes and beliefs from the OpenQuestion graph.