The committee recognised that low back pain is very common and that it can cause considerable distress and disability. Therefore, if further research were to provide good evidence of efficacy for percutaneous intradiscal radiofrequency treatment of the intervertebral disc nucleus, the procedure might offer benefit to many patients. This supported the recommendation for further research.
The committee was advised that pulsed radiofrequency treatment is becoming more commonly used. Therefore, further studies using pulsed radiofrequency, including comparative studies, are encouraged to reduce the uncertainties about this emerging technique.
The committee noted that there was no evidence on the use of percutaneous intradiscal radiofrequency treatment of the intervertebral disc nucleus for the treatment of sciatica; that is why this guidance refers only to its use for low back pain.
The committee was disappointed by the lack of new evidence following its specific recommendation for further research on this procedure in NICE's interventional procedure guidance on percutaneous intradiscal radiofrequency thermocoagulation for lower back pain published in 2004.