Consensus practice guidelines on interventions for cervical spine (facet) joint pain from a multispecialty international working group.
Robert W HurleyMeredith C B AdamsMeredith BaradArun BhaskarAnuj BhatiaAndrea L ChadwickTimothy Ray DeerJennifer HahWilliam Michael HootenNarayan R KissoonDavid Wonhee LeeZachary MccormickJee Youn MoonSamer NarouzeDavid A ProvenzanoByron J SchneiderMaarten van EerdJan Van ZundertMark S WallaceSara M WilsonZirong ZhaoSteven Paul CohenPublished in: Pain medicine (Malden, Mass.) (2022)
Cervical medial branch radiofrequency ablation may provide benefit to well-selected individuals, with medial branch blocks being more predictive than intra-articular injections. More stringent selection criteria are likely to improve denervation outcomes, but at the expense of false-negatives (ie, lower overall success rate). Clinical trials should be tailored based on objectives, and selection criteria for some may be more stringent than what is ideal in clinical practice.