ArticleCureus2025
Therapeutic Effectiveness of Lumbar Medial Branch Block and Lumbar Intra-Articular Facet Injections: A Propensity-Matched Cohort Study.
Article in Cureus, 2025. The graph could read no effect estimate from its abstract, so it casts no vote on the map. Cited by 1 paper.
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.
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Who cites it
1 citing paper in PubMed.
- Cervical facet joint interventions for neck pain: an anatomically and clinically focused review.Anesthesia and pain medicine · 2025Review
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Authors and funding
8 authors.
Funding
No grant is acknowledged in the PubMed record.
Abstract
backgroundChronic low back pain is a prevalent condition that is treated commonly with radiofrequency neurotomy (RFN) after diagnostic targeting with medial branch blocks (MBB) or intra-articular (IA) injection. PURPOSE: We evaluated the long-term therapeutic value of MBB and IA injection of steroids for relief from chronic low back pain beyond the current diagnostic utility. METHODS AND OUTCOME MEASURES: This was a retrospective propensity-matched cohort study from a single physician injection census at a tertiary care hospital. A total of 460 patients receiving MBB (n=383) or IA injection (n=77) in 2013-2020 were included. Primary outcome measures were patient-reported outcomes (PROs) at the time of injection, and follow-up at three and six months with the Numerical Rating Scale (NRS), PRO Measurement Information System (PROMIS)-Mental Health (MH), PROMIS-Physical Health (PH), and the Patient Health Questionnaire (PHQ)-9 scores. The same PROs at the one-year follow-up were the secondary outcome measures. Propensity weighting was performed to balance MBB and IA injection groups over several demographic and clinical categories.
resultsSignificant improvements in NRS (p=<0.001) were reported at the three-month, six-month, and one-year follow-ups, while significant improvements in PROMIS-PH scores (p=0.015) were identified at three and six months post injection.
conclusionsOur results suggest that MBB and IA injection have potential therapeutic benefits for chronic low back pain for at least six months post injection. These results suggest that there is value in these diagnostic modalities therapeutically beyond the acute time frame. These results lay the groundwork for additional investigations into treatment options for patients affected by chronic low back pain.
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