• Khalid M Malik, Ariana M Nelson, Michael J Avram, Sabrina Lee Robak, and Honorio T Benzon.
• Department of Anesthesiology, Northwestern University, Chicago IL, USA.
• Anesth Pain Med. 2015 Aug 1;5(4):e28110.

BackgroundPregabalin is commonly used to treat patients with various neuropathic pain syndromes.ObjectivesThe purpose of the present study was to evaluate the efficacy of pregabalin in patients with lumbar or cervical radicular pain.Patients And MethodsA prospective, randomized, double-blind trial was conducted in 39 patients with lumbar and cervical radicular pain, who received 3 weeks of either pregabalin (n = 10) or placebo (n = 9) treatment. Baseline pain and disability were evaluated before the treatment and were re-evaluated, along with overall patient satisfaction, after the 3 weeks of treatment.ResultsData on 19 of the 39 patients recruited were available for analysis. No statistically significant differences in the pain, disability, and patient satisfaction scores were found between the groups. When the individual patient scores were assessed, the placebo treatment was found to be efficacious in 4 of the 9 patients and pregabalin was effective in 2 of the 10 patients, but the difference was not statistically significant (P = 0.350).ConclusionsThe present data do not suggest that pregabalin is more efficacious than placebo in the treatment of lumbar and cervical radicular pain. However, the small sample size of this study may have affected the ability to detect such a difference.

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