Loading...
Researchers have compared epidural steroid injections or oral drugs with placebo for radicular pain in dozens of trials. However, in only a few trials has one active treatment been compared with another. In this multicenter, double-blind trial, 145 patients with lumbosacral radicular pain secondary to herniated disk or spinal stenosis received single epidural steroid injections plus a placebo drug or sham injections plus gabapentin. In all patients, pain duration was <4 years, and leg pain was as severe as, or more severe than, back pain. A positive outcome was defined as a ≥2-point decrease in leg pain on a 10-point scale.
At 1 month, average leg-pain scores (the primary outcome) had improved from a baseline of 5.4 in both groups, to 3.3 an…