• Eun Young Joo, Won Uk Koh, Seong-Soo Choi, Jae-Hyung Choi, Ho-Soo Ahn, Hye Joo Yun, and Jin-Woo Shin.
• Department of Anesthesiology and Pain Medicine, Asan Medical Center, University of Ulsan College of Medicine, Seoul, Korea.
• Pain Physician. 2017 Jan 1; 20 (1): E107-E114.

BackgroundChronic lower back pain with or without radiculopathy represents an important medical, social, and economic problem. Many treatment modalities and techniques, including surgery and epidural administration of steroids, have been used to manage this pain. Hypertonic saline, which has been used as an adjunct to percutaneous epidural adhesiolysis, can also be injected via a transforaminal approach in expectation of longer-lasting effects.ObjectivesThis study aimed to determine the effect of adding hypertonic saline to conventional transforaminal epidural steroid injections (TFEI) to provide pain relief for chronic radiculopathy patients.Study DesignA retrospective study.SettingPain clinic of a university hospital.MethodsBetween January 2010 and December 2013, the medical records of 246 patients (94 in the hypertonic group, 153 in the control group) who received transforaminal epidural block were reviewed and analyzed. The hypertonic group received 10% sodium chloride solution added to lidocaine, triamcinolone, and hyaluronidase. Outcomes on pain reduction were measured using a numerical rating scale (NRS) and the responder rate at baseline, one, 3, and 6 months after procedure.ResultsThe estimated difference in NRS scores from baseline throughout a 6-month follow-up period in the hypertonic group were significantly higher (P = 0.0003). The proportion of substantial responders (41.9% vs. 34.6% at one month, 40.9% vs. 26.8% at 3 months, and 33.3% vs. 14.4% at 6 months, respectively, P = 0.0058) and substantial/moderate responders (71.0% vs. 58.8% at one month, 65.6% vs. 40.4% at 3 months, and 48.4% vs. 20.3% at 6 months, respectively, P < 0.0001) were significantly higher in the hypertonic group. The Oswestry disability index (ODI) was not different between the groups (P = 0.2697).LimitationsRetrospective design without a control group.ConclusionsHypertonic saline provides more superior and longer lasting pain relieving effects when added to TFEIs.Key words: Back pain, epidural injections, epidural steroids, hypertonic saline, lumbar, radiculopathy, transforaminal.

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