Determination of Predictive Clinical Signs of Effective Rhizolysis Using the DFL Questionnaire (Diagnosis of Facet Joint Origin Lumbago).

The frequency of chronic lower back pain is a major economic and social problem. Indeed, there are numerous solutions that can be offered to patients, but sometimes they are unsatisfactory as medical treatments are often insufficiently effective, surgical techniques are often invasive and indications can be limited.

Rhizolysis or lumbar thermocoagulation is a therapeutic proposal for certain types of chronic lower back pain that is resistant to medical treatment and outside the field of surgical indications. This technique, which is minimally invasive, is low-risk for patients and is widely used. However, few studies have shown its effectiveness, so the level of evidence is not enough to make this technique accepted as a standard.

A previous study has selected functional and physical signs for joint involvement in lower back pain. This selection was made by analysts and a group of experts from the modified "Delphi" prediction method. This study resulted in the creation of a questionnaire (DFL questionnaire) with 16 symptoms: 7 functional and 9 physical.

The aim of this new study is to select the symptoms that have the best positive predictive value among the 16 symptoms, to predict a good result of rhizolysis, on the criterion of their mitigation or disappearance in case of effective rhizolysis.