ArticleJournal of pain research2022
An International Survey on the Practice of Lumbar Radiofrequency Ablation for Management of Zygapophyseal (Facet)-Mediated Low Back Pain.
Article in Journal of pain research, 2022. The graph could read no effect estimate from its abstract, so it casts no vote on the map. Cited by 4 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
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Who cites it
4 citing papers in PubMed, 7 citations in OpenAlex.
- Lumbar Radiofrequency Ablation (LRFA)- Myths and Facts: A Narrative Review of the Literature.Current pain and headache reports · 2025Review
- Epidural Contrast Patterns and Clinical Implications: An Educational Review.Current pain and headache reports · 2025Review
- Enhancing Clinical Insights: New Radiographic Grading for Lumbar Facet Joint Degeneration, A Reliability Study.JOR spine · 2025Article
- Current trends in the technical performance of lumbar zygapophyseal joint interventions.Interventional pain medicine · 2023Article
Corrections and comments
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Authors and funding
6 authors at 5 institutions in 1 country.
Funding
No grant is acknowledged in the PubMed record.
Abstract
Objective: The objective of this study was to survey current clinical practice related to lumbar radiofrequency (RFA) for the treatment of zygapophyseal (facet)-mediated low back pain. Methods: Survey questions regarding the clinical practice of lumbar RFA were created and piloted by the American Society of Pain and Neuroscience (ASPN) leadership. After revision for clarity, health-care professionals worldwide who hold membership status within the ASPN Society and who offer lumbar RFA in their clinical practice were recruited to participate in this online survey. All responses were tabulated and summarized descriptively. Results: A total of 329 participants responded in the survey. Most participants specialized in anesthesiology (68.4%) and physical medicine and rehabilitation (21.8%) and had been practicing pain management for more than five years (70.5%). Of physician respondents, 27.5% did not complete an Accreditation Council for Graduate Medical Education (ACGME)-accredited pain medicine fellowship and 16.5% were not board-certified in pain medicine. The majority of providers (69.7%) reported that they perform two diagnostic medial branch blocks prior to proceeding with lumbar RFA. Bupivacaine 0.5% was the most common medication utilized for both the first (37.4%) and second (37.1%) diagnostic blocks. There were 32.6% of total respondents who reported not utilizing contrast dye when performing diagnostic blocks. The vast majority of providers (91.4%) reported using conventional RFA for lumbar medial branch neurotomy. Conclusion: This survey study provides a summary of the application of lumbar RFA for the treatment of axial low back pain in the real-world setting. We highlight a significant portion of providers who perform lumbar RFA yet do not have pain fellowship training at an ACGME-accredited institution or do not maintain current pain medicine board certification. We also report deviations from standard practice, specifically the type of local anesthetic used for comparative diagnostic blocks and the omission of contrast injection during diagnostic blocks.
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