ReviewEuropean spine journal : official publication of the European Spine Society, the European Spinal Deformity Society, and the European Section of the Cervical Spine Research Society2026
The long-term clinical course of non-surgically treated lumbar spinal stenosis: a systematic review and meta-analysis.
Review 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, 2026. The graph could read no effect estimate from its abstract, so it casts no vote on the map. Cited by 2 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
2 citing papers in PubMed.
- Five-year outcomes from a multi-center prospective randomized controlled trial of minimally invasive interspinous fixation versus open direct decompression for lumbar spinal stenosis.Interventional pain medicine · 2026Article
- Effect of sarcopenia and paraspinal muscle morphology on conservative treatment outcomes in lumbar spinal stenosis: a prospective cohort study.Frontiers in aging · 2026Article
Corrections and comments
PubMed lists nothing against this paper. Absence here is not a guarantee, only a check that was made.
Authors and funding
8 authors.
Funding
No grant is acknowledged in the PubMed record.
Abstract
purposeLumbar spinal stenosis (LSS) is a common degenerative spinal condition in older adults. Greater understanding of the long-term clinical course of symptomatic LSS is needed to determine prognosis with non-surgical interventions. This systematic review aimed to model the long-term clinical course of pain and disability in adults with LSS.
methodsThe review was prospectively registered (PROSPERO-CRD42024508181). A comprehensive keyword search was completed. Risk of bias was assessed using the Quality In Prognosis Studies tool (QUIPS). The Grading of Recommendations Assessment, Development and Evaluation (GRADE) system evaluated the certainty of evidence. Meta-regression analysis was performed to study longitudinal changes in pain (scale 0-10) and disability (sale 0-100).
results18 studies were included. Some form of multimodal intervention was most offered (13/18 studies). Pooled mean scores for pain were highest at baseline 5.66 [95% CI 5.15; 6.15] with reductions at 6 months 4.75 [95% CI 4.30; 5.19], 12 months 3.54 [95% CI 2.86; 4.20], and beyond 12 months 4.01 [95% CI 3.43; 4.58]. For disability, the pooled mean score at baseline was 35.07 [95% CI 29.30; 40.83], 26.08 [95% CI 15.51; 36.65] at 6 months, and 25.44 [95% CI 17.99; 32.89] at 12 months. The certainty of evidence for both pain and disability was low.
conclusionThere is low certainty evidence that individuals with LSS experience reductions of up to one-third in pain and disability in the first year after non-surgical intervention. There is little further improvement in pain or disability beyond one-year and up to five years.
Indexed as
Identifiers
41148274What OpenQuestion holds
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.