ArticleBMC musculoskeletal disorders2026
Specialty-related differences in diagnosing hip-spine syndrome: a multi-center retrospective cohort study.
Article in BMC musculoskeletal disorders, 2026. 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
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
1 citing paper in PubMed.
- The invisible hip: radiographic "misses" in hip-spine syndrome and the diagnostic disparity between orthopedic surgeons and neurosurgeons.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 · 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
backgroundHip-spine syndrome (HSS) poses a diagnostic challenge because lumbar degenerative disease, sacro-iliac joint dysfunction, and hip osteoarthritis often produce overlapping symptoms. The suboptimal diagnostic pathways may contribute to adverse clinical outcomes. Earlier work suggested that orthopaedic surgeons more consistently obtain hip imaging than neurosurgeons when treating patients who ultimately require both lumbar and hip operations. Whether this observation holds in a tertiary-care electronic medical-record (EMR) setting remains unknown.
methodsWe queried the Chang Gung Research Database (CGRD), the largest multi-institutional EMR repository in Taiwan, for patients aged 50–85 years who underwent both hip arthroplasty and lumbar surgery within the same 12-month period between 2001 and 2024. Cohorts were categorised as hip-then-spine (HS, n = 58), spine-then-hip (SH, n = 223), or simultaneous procedures (Both, n = 2). SH patients were stratified by the specialty of the spine surgeon: orthopaedic (OS, n = 104) versus neurosurgical (NS, n = 111). Primary outcomes were (1) pre-operative ordering of combined spine + pelvis/hip radiography and (2) documentation of hip pathology before spine surgery. Group differences were analysed with χ² or Student’s t tests (α = 0.05).
resultsCombined spine-and-hip imaging was obtained significantly more often by OS than by NS (73.1% vs. 51.4%; p < 0.001; FDR q-value: 0.002). Hip osteoarthritis or osteonecrosis was recorded pre-operatively in 26.9% of OS cases versus 21.6% of NS cases, a non-significant difference attributable to limited sample size (p = 0.364). The SH:HS ratio showed approximately 4:1, indicating that spine surgery typically precedes hip arthroplasty in routine practice.
conclusionsWithin a tertiary-care EMR database, orthopaedic surgeons were more likely than neurosurgeons to order comprehensive spinopelvic imaging, thereby enhancing detection of hip pathology in patients with suspected HSS. These findings underscore the importance of mandated and standardized pre-operative hip/pelvic imaging before lumbar surgery and support efforts to harmonise diagnostic protocols across specialties.
Indexed as
Identifiers
What 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.