Systemic corticosteroids vs placebo: Surgery Number of participants who underwent surgery
- Population
- people with radicular low back pain (not due to spinal stenosis)
- Intervention
- Systemic corticosteroids
- Comparison
- placebo
- Outcome
- Surgery Number of participants who underwent surgery
Systemic corticosteroids showed no clear difference in participants who underwent surgery Underwent surgery compared with placebo (moderate certainty).
What each review found
Include earlier review versions| Finding | Effect | Studies | GRADE certainty |
|---|---|---|---|
Systemic corticosteroids vs placebo Participants who underwent surgery Underwent surgery · people with radicular low back pain (not due to spinal stenosis) Systemic corticosteroids showed no clear difference in participants who underwent surgery Underwent surgery compared with placebo (moderate certainty). Systemic corticosteroids for radicular and non‐radicular low back pain (2022) · Cochrane Headline outcomes only | RR 1 [0.68, 1.47] | 5 studies · 442 participants | Moderate |
Findings are shown side by side, never pooled across reviews.
The reviews
| Review | Searched up to | Included studies | AMSTAR 2 |
|---|---|---|---|
| Systemic corticosteroids for radicular and non‐radicular low back pain 2022 · Cochrane Headline outcomes only | Not reported | Not extracted | Not assessed |
Related questions
The same intervention and outcome, asked in another population or against another comparator.
- Systemic corticosteroids vs placebo · people with non‐radicular low back pain · 1 review
How reviews are matched to this question
Reviews word the same question differently. Four decision models (TypeSafe's Jev, Liquid AI's d1-ultra, SubQ Snap and Baseten's Elephant) judged each wording of the population, intervention, comparator and outcome against the others; two wordings count as the same when at least three of them agree and none clearly disagrees, and findings count as this question only when all four elements match. Timing, setting and subgroup never split a question: they are shown on each finding.