IPSIS Leads MPW Response to AHRQ Systematic Review

On May 13, 2021, on behalf of the Multisociety Pain Workgroup (MPW), the International Pain & Spine Intervention Society submitted a letter to the Agency for Healthcare Research and Quality (AHRQ) providing feedback on the systematic review Interventional Treatments for Acute and Chronic Pain.

This review was developed to address procedures not currently covered by the Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services (CMS), but that are relevant and have potential utility for use in the Medicare population; or that are covered by CMS, but for which there is significant uncertainty or controversy regarding their use.

The MPW supports the majority of AHRQ’s recommendations, but the letter:

• highlights concerns about the review’s restriction to inclusion of only randomized controlled trials, especially relative to vertebral augmentation procedures;
• addresses errors made in describing studies on lateral branch radiofrequency neurotomy; and
• suggests additional references for consideration for both vertebral augmentation and occipital nerve stimulation procedures.
  

The MPW requests that the AHRQ give due consideration to these suggestions and revisit several aspects of the report to ensure that the best available evidence is addressed scientifically in order to provide accurate assessments of the procedures reviewed.

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