Surgery no better than rehab for low back pain

Reported by Susan Aldridge, PhD, medical journalist

Intensive rehabilitation is as good as surgery for lower back pain, according to a comparison.
Chronic low back pain, which is pain lasting for more than 12 months, is a very common problem and it is not clear how best to treat it. A team at the Nuffield Orthopaedic Centre, Oxford, England, has compared spinal fusion surgery with intensive rehabilitation in a group of 349 chronic back pain patients.

The rehab was led by physiotherapists and involved daily exercises and behavioral therapy. After two years, there seemed to be little difference between the two group. Surgery was significantly more expensive than rehab, a finding that has clear implications for health economics. Surgery should not be the first-line treatment for back pain if intensive rehabilitation can also be offered.

Source
BMJ Online First 22nd May 2005