GML-04 - What's the Deal? The WHO LBP Guidelines Meet the Ones From the VA/DoD

A set of recently published guidelines by the World Health Organization (WHO) specifically address chronic primary low back pain, previously referred to as non-specific chronic low back pain and defined as a persistent or recurring pain experience of more than three months that is not reliably attributed to an underlying disease process or structural lesion in adults, with or without associated leg pain. This is the most commonly encountered type of back pain across primary care settings and its management accounts for the largest number of visits, patient and provider frustration, and direct/indirect fiscal expenditures worldwide. The WHO guidelines compare 37 interventions across 5 intervention classes to placebo, no intervention, or usual care, specifically in Primary or Community Care settings and provide 24 recommendations, 1 good practice statement and 12 interventions for which no recommendation was made.

We will discuss the differences and similarities of these two discipline-neutral guidelines, emphasizing distinctions in their scope and how the guidelines grade the evidence to make the final recommendations. We will address practical implications of these guidelines for clinical providers.