Abstract

Introduction: Epidural steroid injections (ESIs) have been used in the treatment of chronic low back pain (CLBP) with success. We therefore analyzed the efficacy of fluoroscopically guided transforaminal ESI in patients with lumber spinal stenosis (LSS) and lumbar discogenic pain (LDP) with radiculopathy. Methods: We retrospectively analyzed the prospectively collected data of all patients with a diagnosis of CLBP performed fluoroscopically guided transforaminal ESI between February 2008 and December 2008. Twenty-nine patients with neuroradiological evidence of disc pathology with radiculopathy and LSS were included. All patients received at least one fluoroscopically guided transforaminal epidural injection with 80 mg methylprednisolone acetate and 2 cc of Bupivicain HCl 0.5%. Collected follow-up information included Visual Numeric Pain Scale (VNPS) and North American Spine Society (NASS) patient satisfaction scores. Results: Ages of patients ranged from 34 to 83 years old (mean,56.1±1.2 years old). Among them, 22 are women (75.86%), and 7 are men (24.14%). 68.96 % of patients were determined to have a successful outcome and 31.04% were deemed failures, respectively. Successes were found to differ significantly from failures in pre-injection pain scores and patient satisfaction (p<.05). Conclusion: Fluoroscopically guided transforaminal ESIs have reliable results to perform in patients with LSS and LDP with radiculopathy.