Abstract
One hundred and sixty-three consecutive patients with low back pain and radicular pain in the lower limb were treated with epidural steroid injection. Their clinical diagnosis of disc herniation, spinal stenosis or spondylolisthesis were confirmed by MRI. Ninety-three out of 162 patients (57%) with radicular pain got transient or complete relief for the buttock or leg pain, while 52 of 149 patients (35%) with low back pain got relief. However, in group who complained of severe pain, 90 out of 147 patients (61%) got relief forthe buttock or leg pain, and 41 out of 60 patients (68%) for the low back pain. Especially in disc herniation, the cases with short-term disability significantly improved their low back pain. A peridurogram-CT demonstrated that medium injected into the epidural space usually spreaded in a peridural space. This finding saggested that origin of LBP in the patients with low back pain and radicular pain in the lower limb exist in the epidural space.
