ARE EPIDURAL STEROIDS USEFUL?
Injections of steroids into the lumbar epidural space are frequently used for low back and related radicular leg pains. The question is do they work? The answer: It depends on whom you ask. The controlled studies are split. Two major problems complicate the story. The first is that many different diagnoses may cause the pain, and epidural injections may work for some of these diagnoses better than others. The second problem is that the success of the injection may depend on the technique that is used. The traditional epidural injection technique involves the doctor feeling the patients spine in order to guide the placement of a needle between the spinal vertebrae. A newer technique involves using x-ray fluoroscopy to guide the needle directly to the neural foramen, the point where the affected spinal nerve root exits the spine. This is likely to increase the success of the procedure, but a controlled study using such injection techniques has not yet been done. However, a study in the A
