Intra-Articular Facet Joint Injection of Normal Saline for Chronic Low Back Pain: A Systematic Review and Meta-Analysis.

What it found

Each row is one number read from the abstract, on the scale the paper reported it, with its interval. Left of the dashed line favours the treatment, right favours the comparator. Under each row is the sentence it came from. New to these charts? A ten-minute tutorial.

The abstract states no effect estimate the extractor could read, or names no intervention and outcome on the map, so this paper lights no cell and moves no belief. It is still indexed, cited and linked below.

The trial behind it

Trials whose registry record cites this paper, or whose number appears in the abstract. A trial that started after this paper was published is citing it as background, not reporting it.

Neither the registry nor the abstract names a trial number. If this is a trial report, that itself is worth knowing.

Who cites it

7 citing papers in PubMed, 3 citations in OpenAlex.

1. Comparative effects of intracapsular corticosteroid injection on pain control after total hip arthroplasty: a prospective, randomized controlled trial.Scientific reports · 2026
   Trial
2. Non-inferiority of saline versus corticosteroid injections for trapeziometacarpal osteoarthritis: a protocol for a pilot and feasibility randomised controlled trial.BMJ open · 2026
   Article
3. Regenerative and Drug-Free Strategies for Chronic Musculoskeletal Pain: An Evidence-Based Perspective on Shockwave Therapy, High-Intensity Laser Therapy and Ultrasound-Guided Mechanical Needling with Sterile Water Injection.Biomedicines · 2025
   Article
4. Risk factors and treatment strategies for adjacent segment disease following spinal fusion (Review).Molecular medicine reports · 2025
   Review
5. Intra-Articular Physiological Saline in Temporomandibular Disorders May Be a Treatment, Not a Placebo: A Hypothesis, Systematic Review, and Meta-Analysis.Journal of clinical medicine · 2024
   Article
6. Prolotherapy at Multifidus Muscle versus Mechanical Needling and Sterile Water Injection in Lumbar Spinal Stenosis.Journal of pain research · 2023
   Article
7. Mechanical needling and sterile water hydrodissection modulate nociception via extracellular matrix perturbation and ion channels.Molecular pain
   Review

Corrections and comments

PubMed lists nothing against this paper. Absence here is not a guarantee, only a check that was made.

Authors and funding

4 authors at 3 institutions in 3 countries.

Funding

No grant is acknowledged in the PubMed record.

Abstract

PubMed holds no abstract for this paper.

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