• Soo-Jung Choi, Jae Seok Song, Chunghwan Kim, Myung Jin Shin, Dae Sik Ryu, Jae Hong Ahn, Seung Moon Jung, and Man Soo Park.
• Department of Radiology, GangNeung Asan Hospital, University of Ulsan College of Medicine, GangNeung, Korea.
• Korean J Radiol. 2007 Mar 1; 8 (2): 156-63.

ObjectiveWe wanted to investigate the relationship between the magnetic resonance (MR) findings and the clinical outcome after treatment with non-surgical transforaminal epidural steroid injections (ESI) for lumbar herniated intervertebral disc (HIVD) patients.Materials And MethodsTransforaminal ESI were performed in 91 patients (50 males and 41 females, age range: 13-78 yrs) because of lumbosacral HIVD from March 2001 to August 2002. Sixty eight patients whose MRIs and clinical follow-ups were available were included in this study. The medical charts were retrospectively reviewed and the patients were divided into two groups; the successful (responders, n = 41) and unsatisfactory (non-responders, n = 27) outcome groups. A successful outcome required a patient satisfaction score greater than two and a pain reduction score greater than 50%. The MR findings were retrospectively analyzed and compared between the two groups with regard to the type (protrusion, extrusion or sequestration), hydration (the T2 signal intensity), location (central, right/left central, subarticular, foraminal or extraforaminal), and size (volume) of the HIVD, the grade of nerve root compression (grade 1 abutment, 2 displacement and 3 entrapment), and an association with spinal stenosis.ResultsThere was no significant difference between the responders and non-responders in terms of the type, hydration and size of the HIVD, or an association with spinal stenosis (p > 0.05). However, the location of the HIVD and the grade of nerve root compression were different between the two groups (p < 0.05).ConclusionMRI could play an important role in predicting the clinical outcome of non-surgical transforaminal ESI treatment for patients with lumbar HIVD.

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