A Cochrane review (abstract , review [Abstract]) included 7 studies with a total of 275 patients. One study examined cervical zygapophyseal joint pain, two cervicobrachial pain, three lumbar zygapophyseal joint pain, and one discogenic low-back pain. The study sample sizes were small, follow-up times short, and there were some deficiencies in patient selection, outcome assessments, and statistical analyses. The level of scientific evidence for the short-term effectiveness of radiofrequency denervation was limited for cervical zygapophyseal joint and cervicobrachial pain, and conflicting for lumbar zygapophyseal joint pain. There was limited evidence suggesting that intradiscal radiofrequency thermocoagulation was not effective for discogenic low-back pain.
Comment: The quality of evidence is downgraded by imprecise results (limited study size for each comparison).
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