Here are five things to know:
1. Nearly 150 people enrolled in the study, with half the trial’s patients randomly selected for SI joint fusion surgery.
2. SI joint fusion surgery is a minimally invasive procedure that inserts three titanium bars into the joint.
3. Eighty percent of patients reported pain relief after surgery, compared to the number of patients in the non-surgical group, whose pain relief was just 20 percent.
4. The SI joint is the source of suffering for 25 percent of patients with lower back pain, but most physicians aren’t trained to recognize the problem. Many physicians may overlook the SI joint and just look at the spine.
5. Clay J. Frank, MD, an orthopedic spine surgeon at Wheaton Franciscan’s Midwest Orthopedic Specialty Hospital in Franklin, Wis., was the trial’s lead investigator.
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