Are brake response times altered post CT-guided cervical spine nerve root injections?

• Published in: British journal of radiology 2024-03, Vol.97 (1156), p.834-837
• Main Authors: Hanley, Marion, Eustace, Sarah K, Ryan, David T, McLoughlin, Stephen, Hynes, John P, Kavanagh, Eoin C, Eustace, Stephen J
• Format: Article
• Language: English
• Subjects: Cervical Vertebrae - diagnostic imaging; Female; Humans; Male; Middle Aged; Radiculopathy; Reaction Time; Spinal Nerve Roots - diagnostic imaging; Tomography, X-Ray Computed
• ISSN: 0007-1285; 1748-880X
• DOI: 10.1093/bjr/tqae034

To assess if brake response times are altered pre and post CT-guided cervical spine nerve root injections. Brake response times were assessed before and after CT-guided cervical spine nerve root injections in a cohort of patients. The average of 3 brake response times was recorded before and 30 min after injection. Statistical analysis was performed using GraphPad. A paired Student t-test was used to compare the times before and after the injections. Forty patients were included in this study. The mean age was 55 years. There were 17 male and 23 female patients. There was no significant difference in the mean pre and post CT-guided cervical spine nerve root injection brake response times; 0.94 s (range 0.4-1.2 s) and 0.93 s (range 0.5-1.25 s), respectively (P = .77). Brake response time did not significantly differ pre and 30 min post CT-guided cervical spine nerve root injections. To the authors' best knowledge, there are no current studies assessing brake response times post CT-guided cervical spine nerve root injections. While driving safety cannot be proven by a single metric, it is a useful study in demonstrating that this is not inhibited in a cohort of patients.