Do Epidural Steroid Injections Effectively Treat Radicular Pain?

An American Academy of Neurology assessment finds little high-quality evidence, supporting only short-term pain relief of radicular lumbosacral pain.

Back pain is one of the most common disabling conditions in the developed world today. The economic impact of back pain is as important as its clinical impact, contributing by any measure an enormous sum to the total healthcare expenditure in the U.S. In particular, the cost of treating spinal pain is significant and growing yearly. Epidural steroid injections are generally considered to be an important part of the standard conservative therapy for back pain. However, the role and efficacy of epidural steroid injections continues to be debated. Most pain-management physicians who perform these procedures agree that the clinical presentation most likely to respond to these injections is radicular spinal pain.

This assessment covers the litera…

Reviewing Author

Edgar Ross, MD