Consensus Practice Guidelines on Interventions for Lumbar Facet Joint Pain from a Multispecialty, International Working Group — Regional Anesthesia & Pain Medicine

Cohen SP, Bhaskar A, Bhatia A, Buvanendran A, Deer T, Garg S, Hooten M, Hurley RW, Kennedy DJ, McLean BC, Moon JY, Narouze S, Pangarkar S, Provenzano DA, Rauck R, Sitzman BT, Smuck M, Zundert JV, Vorenkamp K, Wallace MS, Zhao Z

The past two decades have witnessed a surge in the use of lumbar facet blocks and radiofrequency ablation (RFA) to treat low back pain (LBP), yet nearly all aspects of the procedures remain controversial. Lumbar medial branch RFA may provide benefit to well-selected individuals, with MBB being more predictive than IA injections. More stringent selection criteria are likely to improve denervation outcomes, but at the expense of more false-negatives. Clinical trials should be tailored based on objectives, and selection criteria for some may be more stringent than what is ideal in clinical practice.

Cohen SP, Bhaskar A, Bhatia A, et al. (2020). Consensus practice guidelines on interventions for lumbar facet joint pain from a multispecialty, international working group. Regional Anesthesia & Pain Medicine. https://doi.org/10.1136/rapm-2019-101243