Prescrire international
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According to trials conducted in hundreds of patients with sciatica, epidural corticosteroid injections have no demonstrated efficacy beyond the placebo effect, either in the short-term or the long-term. However, they expose patients to a risk of sometimes serious neurological adverse effects.
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Prescrire international · Feb 2015
ReviewThe reorganisation of European pharmacovigilance. Part 2. From spontaneous reports to agency reviews and decisions.
Despite the fact that adverse effects are vastly under-reported, spontaneous reporting remains the foundation of pharmacovigilance. A small series of properly documented cases, when very specific, can suffice to constitute a signal. In France, reporting adverse effects to Regional Pharmacovigilance Centres (CRPVs) permits high-quality analysis of pharmacovigilance signals, so that they can be brought to the attention of the national agency responsible for making decisions about drugs, the French Health Products Agency (ANSM). ⋯ Negotiations with other Member States, the European Medicines Agency (EMA) and the European Commission must be supported by robust data: this is yet another reason for each country to have its own effective national pharmacovigilance database, the contents of which should be publicly accessible. This is unfortunately not yet the case in France in 2014. It also provides another good reason for healthcare professionals and patients to report adverse effects, so that the details can be recorded in national and European databases.