Comparison of Patient’s Return to Work Capability between Spinal Injection and Muscle Relaxant Medicine among Patients with Chronic Low Back Pain

Abstract

Introduction: Low back pain is a very common disorder and often hinders our daily activities. There are several treatment options for LBP management. This study aims to determine differences in patient recovery to return to work evaluated based on VAS, Roland Morris Disability Questionnaire (RMDQ) and Oswestry Low Back Pain Disability Questionnaire (ODI) after spinal injection with oral analgesics and muscle relaxants in patients with chronic low back pain. Methods: This is a randomized controlled trial study on patients with LBP undergoing conservative therapies at the Orthopaedic outpatient clinic from February – March 2019. Inclusion began from when patients were admitted to the clinic in February 2019 until March 2019. Mean scores between two treatment groups were compared. Functional evaluation on patients with low back pain is commonly done using questionnaire. Spinal Injection contained a combination of lidocaine and triamcinolone acetonide. Oral therapy containing a combination of paracetamol 325mg and tramadol 37.5mg were given 3 times daily for 3 weeks, along with Eperisone 50mg which acted as a muscle relaxant. Data then was analysed descriptively and statistically. Result: 32 patiens were included in this study with 16 patients in each treatment groups. The mean age of the patients is 42. Patients VAS, RMDQ, and ODI score were measured before the treatment, after 1 week, 2 weeks and 3 weeks. the results were shown in Table 1. All study parameters were shown improvements with increasing time. LBP treated with Spinal injection were clinically and statistically better compared to oral therapy. Conclusion: Spinal injection method with lidocaine and triamcinoloan acetonide is better than oral analgesic therapy with the parameters used in this study