Evidence map›Paper›PMID 39444252›Full record

SynthesisPM & R : the journal of injury, function, and rehabilitation2025

Low-value interventions to deimplement: A secondary analysis of a systematic review of low back pain clinical practice guidelines.

Daniel Tai, Eunyeop Kim, Prateek Grover, Alejandro Rodriguez, Timothy J Olivier, Thiru M Annaswamy

Abstract readSystematic Review
In one paragraph

Synthesis in PM & R : the journal of injury, function, and rehabilitation, 2025. The graph could read no effect estimate from its abstract, so it casts no vote on the map. Cited by 2 papers, 1 of them a synthesis that pooled it.

0numbers the graph read from it
0cells of the map it votes in
2citing papers in PubMed, 1 pooled it
–field-weighted citation impact
1 · What the graph read from it

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.

2 · The registry

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.

3 · Its place in the literature

Who cites it

2 citing papers in PubMed, 1 synthesis or guideline pooled it.

  1. Pooled it
  2. An introduction to implementation science in rehabilitation medicine.PM & R : the journal of injury, function, and rehabilitation · 2025
    Article
4 · The record

Corrections and comments

PubMed lists nothing against this paper. Absence here is not a guarantee, only a check that was made.

5 · Who and what money

Authors and funding

6 authors.

Daniel TaiUT Southwestern Medical Center, Dallas, Texas, USA.
Eunyeop KimUT Southwestern Medical Center, Dallas, Texas, USA.
Prateek GroverPenn State Health Milton S. Hershey Medical Center, Physical Medicine & Rehabilitation, Hershey, Pennsylvania, USA.
Alejandro RodriguezUT Southwestern Medical Center, Dallas, Texas, USA.
Timothy J OlivierUT Southwestern Medical Center, Dallas, Texas, USA.
Thiru M AnnaswamyPenn State Health Milton S. Hershey Medical Center, Physical Medicine & Rehabilitation, Hershey, Pennsylvania, USA.ORCID https://orcid.org/0000-0002-3969-9221

Funding

No grant is acknowledged in the PubMed record.

6 · The paper itself

Abstract

objectiveTo perform a secondary review of low back pain (LBP) clinical practice guidelines (CPG) identified in a recently conducted systematic review and to synthesize and summarize low-value recommendations as practices that may be candidates for deimplementation. LITERATURE SURVEY: LBP (subacute or chronic) CPGs in English (symptom based, created by a governmental or professional society, published between January 1990 and May 2020) were previously identified using MEDLINE, EMBASE, CINAHL, Ortho Guidelines, CPG Infobase, Emergency Care Research Institute, Guidelines International Network, National Institute of Health and Care Excellence, and Scottish Intercollegiate Guideline Network. METHODOLOGY: Twenty-one CPGs were reviewed from a systematic review (previously published). Full-text review of all 21 CPGs was conducted, and three recommendation categories indicative of low value (recommend strongly against, recommend weakly against, inconclusive/insufficient evidence) were identified using the Grading of Recommendations Assessment, Development, and Evaluation (GRADE) language and approach. SYNTHESIS: One hundred thirty-five low-value recommendations were identified and classified under eight intervention categories: orthotics/support, traction, physical modalities, pharmacological interventions, injections, surgery, bed rest, and miscellaneous. Traction, transcutaneous electrical nerve stimulation (TENS), therapeutic ultrasound (TUS), and selective serotonin reuptake inhibitors (SSRI) had the most CPGs recommend strongly against their usage. Opioids were recommended strongly against by four CPGs. No significant difference (p > .05) was found between CPG quality and a specific deimplementation recommendation or between CPG quality and the number of strongly against, weakly against, and inconclusive/insufficient evidence recommendations.

conclusionsClinicians managing patients with chronic LBP should consider deimplementing these low-value interventions (traction, TENS, TUS, and SSRI).

Indexed as

Low Back PainPractice Guidelines as TopicHumans

Identifiers

PMID39444252
PMCPMC12659722

What OpenQuestion holds

Textmetadata
LicenceCC BY-NC-ND
Read underepoch 390

Registered trials

None linked

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.