Efficacy of Lumbosacral Transforaminal Epidural Steroid Injections: A Systematic Review

Objective To critically review the best available studies evaluating the efficacy of lumbosacral transforaminal epidural steroid injections (TFESIs) in the treatment of radicular pain. Data Sources MEDLINE, EMBASE, and the Cochrane database were searched for the period between 1950 and May 2008. Sea...

Full description

Saved in:
Bibliographic Details
Published in:PM & R 2009-07, Vol.1 (7), p.657-668
Main Authors: Roberts, Scott T., MD, Willick, Stuart E., MD, Rho, Monica E., MD, Rittenberg, Joshua D., MD
Format: Article
Language:English
Subjects:
Humans
Injections, Epidural
Lumbosacral Region
Physical Medicine and Rehabilitation
Radiculopathy - drug therapy
Radiculopathy - physiopathology
Randomized Controlled Trials as Topic
Steroids - administration & dosage
Citations: Items that this one cites
Items that cite this one
Online Access:Get full text
Tags: Add Tag
No Tags, Be the first to tag this record!
Description
Summary:Objective To critically review the best available studies evaluating the efficacy of lumbosacral transforaminal epidural steroid injections (TFESIs) in the treatment of radicular pain. Data Sources MEDLINE, EMBASE, and the Cochrane database were searched for the period between 1950 and May 2008. Search terms included epidural steroid injection (ESI), transforaminal ESI, foraminal ESI, selective nerve root block, nerve root injection (NRI), selective NRI, periradicular infiltration, and periradicular injection. Randomized controlled trials (RCTs), published in English, which evaluated the efficacy of fluoroscopically guided TFESIs were reviewed. Study Selection Studies were analyzed with a quality checklist modeled after the 2001 CONSORT Statement: Revised Recommendations for Improving the Quality of Reports of Parallel-Group Randomized Trials. Nine studies were found to include a majority of these items. Data Extraction Data included study design, inclusion criteria, symptom duration, randomization protocol, blinding protocol, intervention, control, outcomes, follow-up, dropout, statistical analysis, and conclusions. Data Synthesis Each article was assigned a level of evidence: I (high-quality RCT) or II (RCT with
ISSN:1934-1482
1934-1563
DOI:10.1016/j.pmrj.2009.04.008