Abstract
BackgroundMany patients who receive cervical epidural steroid injections (ESIs) are referred for the injection from a physician who does not perform the procedure. PurposeTo compare success rates of fluoroscopically-guided cervical ESIs in patients who had a clinical evaluation and recommendation for the injection by a fellowship-trained spine specialist who routinely performs ESIs (Group A), vs those who had a clinical evaluation by a fellowship-trained spine specialist who referred the patient for the procedure to be done by a different physician (Group B). Study design/settingRetrospective, observational, in vivo study of consecutive patients. Patient Sample. Patients undergoing cervical transforaminal (TF) or interlaminar (IL) ESIs at a single outpatient academic spine center. Outcome measuresNumeric Rating Scale (NRS) pain score improvement. MethodsCurrent procedural terminology (CPT) codes were used to search all consecutive patients who received a cervical TF or IL ESI between January 2010 and October 2018. All patients with pre and post-injection NRS pain scores within 60 days of the injection were included in the analysis. ResultsA total of 363 ESIs were analyzed (178 TF and 185 IL). 275 patients were evaluated and referred for the injection by a spine specialist who performs these procedures (Group A), and 88 were evaluated and referred by a spine specialist who does not perform these procedures (Group B). Success was defined as > 50% improvement in the NRS pain score. 52% [95% CI: 47–57%] of all patients who received a cervical ESI achieved a successful outcome. There were better results in Group A with a 57% [95% CI: 51–63%] success rate compared to a 38% [95% CI: 28–48%] success rate in Group B. Group A also had a higher proportion of patients who achieved at least 80% pain relief (31% [95% CI: 26–36%]) compared to Group B (17% [95% CI: 9–25%]). ConclusionThis retrospective study demonstrated better results from cervical ESIs when patients were referred for the injection by a physician who performs ESIs. This research did not receive any specific grant from funding agencies in the public, commercial, or not-for-profit sectors.
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