The Clinical Status of Patients With Lumbar Spinal Stenosis Reflects Their Individual Decision to Undergo or Defer Lumbar Spinal Surgery.

Objective: To evaluate whether functional, clinical, and self-reported tests reflect lumbar spinal stenosis patients' decisions to undergo or defer surgery.

Methods: Among 108 participants, 77 chose surgery (SG), and 31 opted to wait and see (WaSG) whether they got better spontaneously. Both groups were assessed at baseline (t0) and 3 months (t1), with additional self-reported measures at 6 (t2) and 12 months (t3).

Barefoot walking is beneficial for individuals with persistent plantar heel pain: A single-blind randomized controlled trial.

Background: A lack of data exist about the effectiveness of active treatments for persistent plantar heel pain (PPHP).

Objectives: To compare short-term functional and clinical effects of a 4-week barefoot or shod treadmill walking program for people with PPHP.

Methods: A single-blinded clinical trial randomized 52 participants with PPHP into either a barefoot walking group (BWG), or a shod walking group (SWG).

"Nociplastic Pain": A Challenge to Nosology and to Nociception.

The construct of "nociplastic pain" has met with divergent receptions. On the one hand it has been enthusiastically embraced, to the extent of conflation with central sensitization of nociception and the International Classification of Diseases 11th Revision (ICD-11) entity of "primary" pain, and the promulgation of "nociplastic pain syndromes." On the other hand, it has been rejected by those whose skepticism derives from the absence, by definition, of underlying activation of nociceptors.

Lumbosacral zone features in individuals with nonspecific chronic low back pain are unique compared to controls and correlate with pain and dysfunction.

Objectives: To compare the lumbosacral nerve distances (LNDs) and sacroiliac joint (SIJ) morphology in individuals with nonspecific chronic low back pain (NSCLBP) and control and examine their correlations with pain and dysfunction in the former.

Materials And Methods: The sample includes 200 adult patients (ranging from 20 to 50 years old) referred for computerized abdominal tomography (CT): 100 individuals with NSCLBP (50 males and 50 females) and 100 individuals without NSCLBP (50 males and 50 females). CT scans were assessed for LNDs, degenerative sacroiliac changes, and joint bridging.

Healthcare providers have insufficient up-to-date knowledge of lower limb sports injuries, and their knowledge is similar to that of athletes.

Background: Being up-to-date with evidence-based knowledge of lower limb sports injuries is essential for Healthcare professionals (HCPs).

Purpose: To assess whether HCPs possess up-to-date knowledge of lower limb sports injuries by comparing their knowledge to that of athletes.

Methods: With an expert panel, we developed an online quiz of 10 multiple-choice questions on various topics related to lower-limb sports injuries.

The 'training load' construct: Why it is appropriate and scientific.

A recent paper called for the abandonment of the term load (and training load) when used outside its mechanical meaning, claiming it is "unscientific" and "breaches scientific principles." In this article, we explain why its use does not breach any scientific principles and we clarify the process of labelling, conceptualising and operationalising a construct. Training load is simply a label attributed to a higher-order construct overarching other interrelated sub-dimensions.

Pain is Not a "thing": How That Error Affects Language and Logic in Pain Medicine.

Effectiveness in academic and clinical communication depends upon agreement on what words and concepts denote and on the consequent ability to argue logically and accurately. In the pain medicine literature there are many examples of imprecision and confusion in this respect, including misnomers and fallacies in reasoning. This article firstly critically examines some of these misnomers.

Attitudinal responses to current concepts and opinions from pain neuroscience education on social media.

Background: Pain neuroscience education (PNE) programs have become popular among clinicians and are widely promoted through social and mainstream media.

Purpose: To test the hypothesis that people with persistent pain are likely to express negative attitudes to PNE statements and compare their responses to other social media user groups.

Methods: A total of 1319 respondents completed an online survey and were directed into four groups: persistent pain, healthcare professionals with persistent pain, pain-free healthcare professionals, and pain-free controls.

A morphological characterization of the lumbar neural arch in females and males with degenerative spondylolisthesis.

Background: Although Degenerative Spondylolisthesis (DS) is a common osseous dysfunction, very few studies have examined the bony morphology of lumbar the neural arch in the population afflicted with DS. Therefore, this study aimed to characterize the neural arch (NA) morphology along the entire lumbar spine in individuals with degenerative spondylolisthesis (DS) and compare them to healthy controls.

Methods: One hundred CTs from a database of 500 lumbar CTs of spondylolisthesis were selected.

A comparative shape analysis of the cervical spine between individuals with cervicogenic headaches and asymptomatic controls.

As some researchers theorized that cervicogenic headache (CEH) might be related to bony and discal features of the cervical spine, this retrospective study examined the shapes of the cervical vertebrae and intervertebral discs (IVDs) of individuals with CEH and compared them to asymptomatic controls. Scans of 40 subjects in their late 20's-mid 30's affected with CEH and 40 asymptomatic controls were obtained (overall = 19,040 measurements, age-sex matched, 20 males and 20 females in each group). The following cervical spine variables were measured: Supine lordosis, vertebral body-heights, A-P lengths, mediolateral widths and sagittal-wedging; IVDs heights and sagittal-wedging; pedicle heights, widths and transverse angles; laminar widths and transverse angles; articular facet angles, spinal canal, and transverse foramen lengths, widths, and areas.

The relationship between diastasis rectus abdominus, pelvic floor trauma and function in primiparous women postpartum.

Introduction And Hypothesis: A functional interaction exists between the pelvic floor and the abdominal wall. The study was aimed at investigating the clinical and morphological relationships between diastasis rectus abdominus (DRA) and pelvic floor trauma in primiparous women.

Methods: Eighteen women suffering from DRA and 18 women without DRA (non-DRA group), all primiparous with pelvic floor trauma, were enrolled in the study.

The cross-cultural adaptation and reliability of the online Hebrew version of the extended Nordic Musculoskeletal Questionnaire.

Background: The Nordic Musculoskeletal Questionnaire assesses musculoskeletal (NMQ) symptoms in occupational environments. Physiotherapists are known to work with their bodies, and hence prone to occupational musculoskeletal injuries. To date, there is no Hebrew version of the extended version of the NMQ (NMQ-E).

Individuals with back and neck pain on medical forums: What do they mention? What do they fear?

Background: The use of online medical forums is on the rise globally. Data scraping is a method of extracting website content using an automated computer program. We scraped users' questions regarding back and neck pain (BNP) from popular Israeli online medical forums.

Why are assumptions passed off as established knowledge?

In this paper we attempt to explain the problems that can arise when assumptions made by experts in their respective fields of Medicine become widely accepted as established knowledge. Our hypothesis is that these problems are in large part attributable to a failure of the experts to follow the principles of logical argument. Empirical data to evaluate our hypothesis derives from an analysis of the reasoning processes employed in the generation of three syndromes drawn from the clinical discipline of Pain Medicine: myofascial pain, shoulder impingement and central sensitisation.

STarT back tool retained its predicting abilities in patients with acute and sub-acute low back pain after a transcultural adaptation and validation to Hebrew.

Background: The STarT Back Screening Tool (SBT) distributes low back pain (LBP) patients into three prognostic groups for stratified care. This approach has demonstrated beneficial clinical and cost-effectiveness.

Objectives: To translate and validate the SBT by investigating its psychometric properties among Israelis with acute and sub-acute LBP, and to evaluate its ability to predict disability after three months.