ArticleNorth American Spine Society journal2021
Cervical medial branch block progression to radiofrequency neurotomy: A retrospective clinical audit.
Article in North American Spine Society journal, 2021. The graph could read no effect estimate from its abstract, so it casts no vote on the map. It is linked to trial NCT07535515 (Comparative Effectiveness of Cervical Zygapophyseal Joint Radiofrequency Versus Anterior Cervical Discectomy and Fusion in Chronic Post-Traumatic Whiplash), which is not on this map. Cited by 2 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.
Comparative Effectiveness of Cervical Zygapophyseal Joint Radiofrequency Versus Anterior Cervical Discectomy and Fusion in Chronic Post-Traumatic Whiplash: A Retrospective Cohort Study
Who cites it
2 citing papers in PubMed, 5 citations in OpenAlex.
- Evaluating prognostic block selection criteria in cervical medial branch radiofrequency neurotomy: A retrospective cohort study.Interventional pain medicine · 2025Article
- Dropped head syndrome after bilateral cervical radiofrequency ablation. A case report and literature review.Interventional pain medicine · 2024Article
Corrections and comments
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Authors and funding
5 authors at 1 institution in 1 country.
Funding
No grant is acknowledged in the PubMed record.
Abstract
backgroundChronic axial neck pain (CANP) due to zygapophysial joint arthropathy is best diagnosed via cervical medial branch block (MBB). However, the paradigm by which MBB is used to select patients for cervical radiofrequency neurotomy (RFN) is contested. Dual diagnostic cervical MBB with a minimum of ≥80% pain relief to diagnose cervical zygapophysial joint pain has been accepted by some Medicare Local Coverage Determinations as the method for selecting patients for cervical RFN. There are some who would argue that the utility of the dual diagnostic MBB and the ≥80% pain relief cut off lacks utility in clinical practice. The suspicion being those who progress from MBB1 to MBB2 will then flow from MBB2 to RFN without fail. Does clinical practice using dual diagnostic MBBs and using an ≥80% pain relief cut off reduce patient eligibility for cervical RFN after both MBB1 and MBB2?
methodsA retrospective clinical audit was carried out at an academic institution spine center from January 1
results21/51 (24%, 95% Confidence Interval 12-35%) patients progressed from MBB1 to MBB2. Of those 21 patients, 13 patients progressed from MBB2 to RFN (62%, 95% CI 41-83%). In total, 13/51 (14%, 95% CI 14-37%) patients who were initially suspected to have CANP due to zygapophysial joint pain progressed to RFN. Both MBB1 and MBB2 hindered the progression of 30/51 patients (59%, 95% CI 45-72%) and 8/21 patients (38%, 95% CI 17-59%), respectively.
conclusionBoth MBB1 and MBB2 served to filter patients from progression to RFN using dual MBBs with an ≥80% pain relief cutoff.
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