Recommandations européenes (COST B 13) en matiè de prévention et de prise en charge de la lombalgie non spécifique

Abstract: Objectives. To produce guidelines based on scientific evidence for the management of low back pain. These guidelines were developed within the framework of the COST Action B13 “Low back pain : guidelines for its management”, issued by the European Commission, Research Directorate-general, Department of Policy, Coordination and Strategy. Methods. Thirty eight experts in the field of low back pain coming from 13 different European countries have contributed to these guidelines. The experts were assigned to three working groups. The group 1 has formulated guidelines for the management of acute low back pain, the group 2 has developed guidelines for the management of chronic low back pain and, finally, the group 3 has proposed guidelines for the prevention in low back pain. The evidence underpinning the guidelines was retrieved through systematic searches of the scientific literature up to the end 2003. Systematic review, randomised controlled trials, and existing guidelines were included. The methodological quality of the selected articles was evaluated using the scoring system developed by the “Cochrane Back Review Group”. Results and conclusion. This paper is a summary in French of the recommendations based on scientific evidence that should be taken into consideration by physicians, health care providers and policy makers when dealing with patients suffering from low back pain. Nevertheless, many aspects of care need to be validated before recommendations can be issued. [Copyright &y& Elsevier]