Review: Immediate routine lumbar-spine imaging does not improve clinical outcomes in low-back pain

Timothy S. Carey

doi:10.7326/0003-4819-150-12-200906160-02007

ACP Journal Club |16 June 2009

Review: Immediate routine lumbar-spine imaging does not improve clinical outcomes in low-back pain

Timothy S. Carey, MD, MPH

Article, Author, and Disclosure Information

Chou R, Fu R, Carrino JA, Deyo RA. Imaging strategies for low-back pain: systematic review and meta-analysis. Lancet. 2009;373:463-72. 19200918

GIM/FP/GP:

Rheumatology:

Chou and colleagues present an elegant literature synthesis comparing the clinical outcomes of routine early imaging with those of usual care in patients with low-back pain. The presence of randomization in the included studies and use of clinical outcomes of pain and functioning, rather than intermediate outcomes of sensitivity or receiver-operating characteristic analyses, reinforce the findings.

No statistically significant differences were found in the meta-analysis or meta-regression. The clinical literature and multiple professional society guidelines on this topic...

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