ABSTRACT

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.

Mean pre- and post-injection VAS scores at 1^st, 3^rd, 6^th, and 12^th 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 1^st, 3^rd, 6^th, and 12^th months when compared to the pre-injection VAS scores were 53.9 %, 52.9 %, 48.1 %, and 47.1 %, respectively.

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.

The aim of this study is to evaluate the benefit rate of cervical radicular pain from fluoroscopy guided transforaminal cervical steroid injection.