• Pain physician · Jul 2023

    Predictors of a Favorable Response to Transforaminal Epidural Steroid Injections for Lumbar Radiculopathy in the Elderly.

    • Maoying Wang, Hua Ling, Bixin Zheng, and Li Song.
    • Department of Pain Management, West China Hospital, Sichuan University, Chengdu, Sichuan Province, People's Republic of China; Department of Anesthesiology, People's Hospital of Qingbaijiang District, Chengdu, Sichuan Province, People's Republic of China.
    • Pain Physician. 2023 Jul 1; 26 (4): 347355347-355.

    BackgroundThe efficacy and its associated predictors of transforaminal epidural steroid injection (TFESI) in elderly patients with lumbar radiculopathy are unknown.ObjectiveThe purpose of this retrospective study was to identify the efficacy of TFESI in elderly patients with lumbar radiculopathy and its associated predictors of long-term outcomes.Study DesignRetrospective study.SettingInterventional pain clinics in West China Hospital of Sichuan University.MethodsIn total, 294 elderly patients who were diagnosed with lumbar radiculopathy and underwent transforaminal epidural steroid injections from January 2019 through January 2022 were retrospectively analyzed. Demographic, clinical, magnetic resonance imaging, and TFESI-related information was collected to assess the predictive factors of long-term outcomes of the TFESI. Pain scores were assessed using the Numeric Rating Scale. Treatment success was defined as a >= 50% reduction in pain scores at 6 months.ResultsMultivariate logistic regression analysis revealed that the duration of symptoms, immediate postoperative response, and neutrophilic granulocyte percentage were independently associated with a favorable response to TFESI. In addition, the level of pain at the initial visit and the number of TFESI performed were also associated with a good response in the multivariate regression analysis, even though the association was not statistically significant.LimitationsApproximately 6% of the patients were lost to follow-up; therefore, selection bias may have slightly influenced our findings. In addition, our patients were not compared with a control population, and consequently, a placebo effect could not be assessed.ConclusionThis study revealed that a short duration of symptoms, good immediate postoperative response and high neutrophilic granulocyte percentage were long-term predictors of a good response to TFESI in elderly patients with lumbar radiculopathy.

      Pubmed     Copy Citation     Plaintext  

      Add institutional full text...

    Notes

     
    Knowledge, pearl, summary or comment to share?
    300 characters remaining
    help        
    You can also include formatting, links, images and footnotes in your notes
    • Simple formatting can be added to notes, such as *italics*, _underline_ or **bold**.
    • Superscript can be denoted by <sup>text</sup> and subscript <sub>text</sub>.
    • Numbered or bulleted lists can be created using either numbered lines 1. 2. 3., hyphens - or asterisks *.
    • Links can be included with: [my link to pubmed](http://pubmed.com)
    • Images can be included with: ![alt text](https://bestmedicaljournal.com/study_graph.jpg "Image Title Text")
    • For footnotes use [^1](This is a footnote.) inline.
    • Or use an inline reference [^1] to refer to a longer footnote elseweher in the document [^1]: This is a long footnote..

    hide…