Purpose:
The aim of this study is to evaluate the benefit rate of cervical radicular pain from fluoroscopy guided transforaminal cervical steroid injection.
Materials-Methods:
We collected data of 78 patients retrospectively from patient files. Only adults at least 18 years of age with upper extremity pain of at least 1 month duration at C5-6 or C6-7 levels of cervical spine were included. Each patient underwent a standard physical examination and was asked to complete a 100-mm visual analogue scale (VAS) questionnaire before transforaminal cervical steroid injection and 1, 3, 6 and 12 months after procedure.
Results:
Mean pre- and post-injection VAS scores at 1st, 3rd, 6th, and 12th months were 8.34 ± 0.68 (7.24-9.64), 3.88 ± 1.45 (2.22-7.35), 3.95 ± 1.29 (2.12-6.87), 4.35 ± 1.12 (2.53-7.12), 4.43 ± 1.10 (2.10-6.15), respectively. The changes in pre- and post-injection VAS scores through follow-ups were statistically significant (p<0.001). Post-hoc tests (Wilcoxon signed-ranks test) revealed that the pre-injection VAS levels were significantly higher than the post-injection VAS scores. The changes in VAS scores at 1st, 3rd, 6th, and 12th months when compared to the pre-injection VAS scores were 53.9 %, 52.9 %, 48.1 %, and 47.1 %, respectively.
Conclusion:
Fluoroscopy guided transforaminal cervical steroid injection has been postulated to be effective on cervical radicular pain because accurate delivery of medication to the site of pathology is possible.
Keywords: Cervical transforaminal steroid injection, cervical radicular pain, fluoroscopy guided injection