Efficacy of Epidural Injection of Hypertonic Saline, Steroid and Local Anesthetics in Patients with Low Back and Radiating Pain.
- Author:
Hyun Bae KIM
1
;
Mi Jung KIM
;
Ki Sub CHOI
;
Sang Gun LEE
Author Information
1. Department of Physical Medicine & Rehabilitation, Hanyang University College of Medicine.
- Publication Type:Original Article
- Keywords:
Hypertonic saline;
Epidural injection;
Low back pain;
Visual analog scale
- MeSH:
Anesthetics, Local*;
Catheters;
Follow-Up Studies;
Humans;
Injections, Epidural*;
Low Back Pain;
Retrospective Studies;
Sciatica;
Visual Analog Scale
- From:Journal of the Korean Academy of Rehabilitation Medicine
1999;23(1):129-133
- CountryRepublic of Korea
- Language:Korean
-
Abstract:
OBJECTIVE: To evaluate the efficacy of epidural injections of hypertonic saline, steroid and local anesthetics in patients with low back pain and sciatica. METHOD: Retrospective study of 325 patients with low back pain and sciatica. Group I, 261 patients, were treated with epidural injection of steroid (Depo-medrol ) weekly for 2 weeks and local anesthetics (lidocaine and bupivacaine) daily via epidural catheter. Group II, 64 patients, were treated with epidural injection of hypertonic saline for three successive days and same method of group I via epidural catheter. The efficacy was assessed with Visual Analog Scale (VAS) on the day of pre- and post- (2weeks later) epidural injection. RESULTS: (1) VAS score changes from pre- to post-epidural injections were from 6.1+/-3.6 to 3.6+/-1.8 (p<0.05) in Group I and from 6.2+/-1.6 to 2.6+/-1.4 (p<0.05) in Group II. (2) VAS score decrease of Group II was more than that of Group I (p<0.05). CONCLUSION: Epidural injections of hypertonic saline, steroid and local anesthetics are effective for patients with low back pain and sciatica in the short term, and more effective than that of steroid and local anesthetics, but prospective long-term follow up studies will be necessary in the future.
