Medicine: Back pain; Atrial fibrillation

Back pain: The effect of physical therapy against back pain is real but marginal. The effect of surgery against back pain is real but we do not know if the effect lasts long-term.

Atrial fibrillation: A large clinical study, “EAST-AF,” showed that early rhythm control in patients with recently diagnosed atrial fibrillation is better than usual care. However, it focused on recently diagnosed atrial fibrillation. Therefore, a professor of medicine commented that these results cannot be generalised to older, sicker patients and patients with atrial fibrillation of longer duration.