SynthesisEuropean spine journal : official publication of the European Spine Society, the European Spinal Deformity Society, and the European Section of the Cervical Spine Research Society2015
Systematic review of observational studies reveals no association between low back pain and lumbar spondylolysis with or without isthmic spondylolisthesis.
Synthesis in 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. The graph could read no effect estimate from its abstract, so it casts no vote on the map. Cited by 14 papers.
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
14 citing papers in PubMed, 30 citations in OpenAlex.
- Trial
- Multifidus fatty infiltration and vertebral translation are key factors associated with movement-related low back pain in L5 isthmic spondylolisthesis.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 · 2026Article
- Erector spinae could be the game changer in surgical decision-making in patients with lumbar spondylolisthesis: a cross-sectional analysis of an age-, sex-, subtype-, level-matched patients with similar spinopelvic parameters received surgical or conservative management.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 · 2024Article
- Common differential diagnosis of low back pain in contemporary medical practice: a narrative review.Frontiers in medicine · 2024Review
- Clinical Outcomes of Interlaminar Percutaneous Endoscopic Uniportal Pars Decompression for Lumbar Spondylolysis.International journal of spine surgery · 2023Article
- Lumbar spondylolisthesis: STATE of the art on assessment and conservative treatment.Archives of physiotherapy · 2021Article
- Is Microendoscopic Discectomy Effective for Patients With Concomitant Lumbar Disc Herniation and Spondylolysis?Global spine journal · 2020Article
- Risk factors of postoperative low back pain for low-grade isthmic spondylolisthesis: a retrospective study.The Journal of international medical research · 2020Article
- Does the awareness of having a lumbar spondylolisthesis influence self-efficacy and kinesiophobia? A retrospective analysis.Archives of physiotherapy · 2019Article
- Rehabilitation of a Young Athlete With Extension-Based Low Back Pain Addressing Motor-Control Impairments and Central Sensitization.Journal of athletic training · 2018Article
- Current evidence for spinal X-ray use in the chiropractic profession: a narrative review.Chiropractic & manual therapies · 2018Review
- The Michel Benoist and Robert Mulholland yearly European Spine Journal review: a survey of the "medical" articles in the European Spine Journal, 2015.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
- The Michel Benoist and Robert Mulholland yearly European spine journal review: a survey of the "surgical and research" articles in the European spine journal, 2015.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
- 'Your spine is so worn out' - the influence of clinical diagnosis on beliefs in patients with non-specific chronic low back pain - a qualitative study'.Brazilian journal of physical therapyArticle
Corrections and comments
PubMed lists nothing against this paper. Absence here is not a guarantee, only a check that was made.
Authors and funding
5 authors at 3 institutions in 1 country.
Funding
No grant is acknowledged in the PubMed record.
Abstract
purposeThe hypothesis that spondylolysis (SL) and/or isthmic spondylolisthesis (IS) cause low back pain (LBP) is widely accepted representing surgical indication in symptomatic cases. If SL/IS cause LBP, individuals with these conditions should be more prone to LBP than those without SL/IS. Therefore, the goal of the study was to assess whether the published primary data demonstrate an association between SL/IS and LBP in the general adult population.
methodsSystematic review of published observational studies to identify any association between SL/IS and LBP in adults. The methodological quality of the cohort and case-control studies was evaluated using the Newcastle-Ottawa scale.
resultsFifteen studies met inclusion criteria (one cohort, seven case-control, seven cross-sectional). Neither the cohort study nor the two highest-quality case-control studies detected an association between SL/IS and LBP; the same is true for the remaining studies.
conclusionsThere is no strong or consistent association between SL/IS and LBP in epidemiological studies of the general adult population that would support a hypothesis of causation. It is possible that SL/IS coexist with LBP, and observed effects of surgery and other treatment modalities are primarily due to benign natural history and nonspecific treatment effects. We conclude that traditional surgical practice for the adult general population, in which SL/IS is assumed to be the cause of non-radicular LBP whenever the two coexist, should be reconsidered in light of epidemiological data accumulated in recent decades.
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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.