The North American Spine Society announced the release of evidence-based clinical guidelines for multidisciplinary spine care for the diagnosis and treatment of low back pain.
The guidelines can help practitioners treat adult patients with non-specific low back pain above the knee, according to a press release issued by the North American Spine Society.
Dr. Kern Singh, who specializes in minimally invasive spine surgery, shares his perspective on the new guidelines below:
“The latest NASS evidence-based clinical guidelines for multidisciplinary spine care arrive at an optimal time. We are faced with an unprecedented worldwide burden of low back pain in an era marked by an increasing number of purported solutions to this pandemic. With a worldwide incidence of low back pain up to 69%, the NASS recommendations now provide us with many “grade A” recommendations. An “A” grade recommendation now supports treatments for low back pain such as combined cognitive-behavioral therapy (CBT) with physical therapy approaches, and also discourage the treatment of low back pain with SSRIs. Although these recommendations are certain to be extremely helpful for practitioners for years to come, the Spine literature remains underpowered, particularly regarding cost utility. Questions regarding who the most cost-effective providers are to address low back pain have been largely left unaddressed by our community. We have numerous research questions that either have conflicting – or an altogether absence of – evidence. While these questions are challenging, when prioritizing our patients, we must place this global morbidity at the forefront of our scientific inquiry.”
