Re-adhesions after Epiduroscopy

Abstract

  At our hospital, epiduroscopy is indicated for pain refractory to nerve block and pharmacotherapy, pain that is temporarily relieved by nerve root block, and adhesions demonstrated by sacral epidurography. In 23 patients who obtained sufficient abrasion during epiduroscopy, sacral epidurography was randomly performed between postoperative days 2 and 14. Re-adhesions began forming on postoperative day 3 in early patients and had occurred in approximately 30% of our patients by 2 weeks after surgery. However, there was no observable difference in postoperative analgesic effects between patients with and without re-adhesions. Epiduroscopy may be associated with not only physical abrasion effects on the epidural space, but also the cleansing effect of physiological saline, local drug effects, and so on.