Civelek 2012.

Methods	RCT
Participants	Setting unknown, Turkey (N = 100) Inclusion criteria Chronic and debilitating LBP leading to diagnosis of lumbar facet syndrome Not responding to conservative treatment for up to 6 weeks, including various analgesics and physical therapy and additional pain relief after FJI for participants with FJRF Symptoms of facet syndrome include local tenderness over 1 or more FJs, back pain aggravated by hyperextension and rotation, morning stiffness or pain increasing in the morning and hip and buttock pain of a non‐radicular distribution Exclusion criteria Radicular pain, neurogenic claudication and neurological deficits Acute or uncontrolled medical illness Known history of adverse reactions to local anaesthetics Pregnancy or lactation
Interventions	Experiment group RF denervation at 80°C for 120 seconds Control group Facet joint injection with medial branch block of posterior primary ramus with 1 cc of methylprednisolone acetate (40 mg) (diluted with 1 cc SF) combined with 2 cc bupivacaine hydrochloride (diluted with 2 cc SF)
Outcomes	Pain intensity: change in VAS score at 1 month: ‐6 (E), ‐5.1 (C). Significant difference between E and C Pain intensity: change in VAS score at 6 months: ‐5.7 (E), ‐4.1 (C). Significant difference between E and C Pain intensity: change in VAS score at 12 months: ‐2.6 (E), ‐4.9 (C). Significant difference between E and C
Notes	Dropouts: incomplete information on participant flow and follow‐up
Risk of bias
Bias	Authors' judgement	Support for judgement
Random sequence generation (selection bias)	Low risk	Random assignment to 2 groups performed by random number generation, with balance after every 10 participants
Allocation concealment (selection bias)	Unclear risk	Remained unclear from text
Blinding (performance bias and detection bias) All outcomes ‐ patients?	High risk	No stimulation in injection group before treatment; impossible to blind participants
Blinding (performance bias and detection bias) All outcomes ‐ providers?	Unclear risk	Remained unclear from text
Blinding (performance bias and detection bias) All outcomes ‐ outcome assessors?	High risk	Participant reported outcome measures
Incomplete outcome data (attrition bias) All outcomes ‐ drop‐outs?	Unclear risk	Incomplete information on participant flow and follow‐up
Incomplete outcome data (attrition bias) All outcomes ‐ ITT analysis?	Low risk	Data from all participants incorporated into the analysis
Selective reporting (reporting bias)	Unclear risk	Remained unclear from text
Baseline characteristics similar?	Low risk	Groups comparable on relevant demographic and clinical variables
Co‐interventions avoided or similar?	Unclear risk	Remained unclear from text
Compliance acceptable?	Low risk	Irrelevant; intervention performed only once
Timing of outcome assessments similar?	Low risk	Meaured pre‐procedure, post procedure and at 1, 6 and 12 months post procedure