Presented at the 2012 AAPM Annual Meeting « Back

The Effect of Lumbar Epidural Steroid Injections on Quality of Life and Everyday Functionality

Kenneth D. Candido, MD, kdcandido@yahoo.com¹, N. Nick Knezevic, MD PhD¹, Maunak V. Rana, MD¹, Vinaya Puppala, MD¹, Jonathan Kamerlink, MD², (1) Advocate Illinois Masonic Medical Center, Chicago, Illinois, (2) Resident Physician, Chicago, Illinois

Introduction: Since there is no much data regarding the everyday functionality improvement after lumbar epidural steroid injections (LESI), the purpose of this study is to evaluate the effect of interlaminar LESI on quality of life and everyday functionality and to compare midline and parasagittal approach during LESI. Methods: After IRB approval of the protocol, written informed consent was obtained from 44 adult patients scheduled to undergo LESI for radicular low back pain. The patients were randomly assigned to one of two groups, based on the approach: group I (22 patients) – got LESI using midline (MIL) approach, and Group II (22 patients) – got LESI using parasagittal interlaminar (PIL) approach. All patients completed the Oswestry Low Back Pain questionnaire before injection and on days 1, 7, and 28 after injections. Results: Our results showed that there was no difference in the basal Oswestry Low Back Pain (OLBP) score between the PIL and MIL group (21.25±7.60 vs. 19.50±5.13). Both groups showed improvement in their everyday activities and quality of life. However, the differences between OLBP scores between baseline and days 1, 7, and 28, was statistically significant only in the PIL group (p = 0.037). There was no statistically significant difference between OLBP scores between different time points in the MIL group (p = 0.145). Conclusion: Even though both groups of patients had improvement in their quality of life and everyday functionality, our results have showed that parasagittal approach was more effective than the midline approach in patients with unilateral lumbosacral radiculopathic pain. References: 1)Manchikanti L. Pain Physician 2004; 7: 465-82 2)Boswell MV, et al. Pain Physician 2005; 8: 1-47 3)Abdi S, et al. Pain Physician 2007; 10: 185-212

Funding: None