Authors : Sanjeev Sreen, Girish Sahni, Sanjeev Arora, Arvind Kumar, Deepak
DOI : 10.18231/j.ijos.2019.049
Volume : 5
Issue : 4
Year : 2019
Page No : 247-251
Introduction: Back pain especially in lumbar region has increased to epidemic proportions in general
population. It may have associated radiculopathy. Conservative treatment is mainstay treatment for all
eviating pain and radiculopathy. A dependable alternative is epidural steroid injection given in multiple
doses.
Materials and Methods: 50 Patients were treated with caudal epidural steroid injection for chronic low
backache of more than three months at our institute. They were evaluated clinically before and after
epidural steroid on the basis of pain, unrestricted activities of day to day life and work performance on
the basis of visual analogue scale and oswestry disability index.
Results: Patients were followed for one year. They were categorized into excellent, good, fair and poor on
the basis of pain alleviation and capability to work. We reported excellent 13, good 15, fair 12 and 10 poor
results. Three patients required surgery for disc prolapse. Only complication reported was pain at epidural
injection region.
Conclusion: Epidural steroids are slowly proving to be a reliable alternative for all eviating pain
and radiculopathy for a short term. It provides significant symptom free time for patients to receive
physiotherapy that is crucial for early and adequate rehabilitation.
Keywords: Low back pain caudal epidural injection conservative treatment visual analogue scale.