Between January 2002 and December 2004, 45 patients with lumbosacral radiculopathy were treated with selective nerve block . There were 31 men and 14 women whose mean age at the time of treatment was 52.4 years (range 20-79 years). The primary diseases were lumbar disc herniation in 32 patients and lumbar canal stenosis in 13 patients. In all cases, the radiculopathy was from a single lumbosacral nerve root. All of the patients underwent conservative nerve root block , 19 (42.2%) had good results (conservative group). The 26 patients (57.8%) who had poor results underwent surgical treatment (operative group). Differences between the groups on pain and Japan Orthopaedic Association (JOA) scores after the nerve block were significant, although pretreatment JOA scores and duration of symptomatic periods were not significantly different. Duration of the effect of the nerve block was longer in the conservative group. In general, the hernia size was larger on MRI in the operative group, and 25 of patients in the operative group exhibited sensory disturbance. We concluded that the nerve root block was useful and should be tried one time before operation in lumbosacral radiculopathy.
