Abstract

INTRODUCTION:

The authors report a prospective study on the treatment of radicular compression using epidural infiltrations.

MATERIAL AND METHODS:

An open study was performed on 200 patients suffering from radicular compression due to either herniated lumbar discs (124 cases), lumbar stenosis (32 cases) or segmental lumbar stenosis (44 cases) and treated by epidural infiltrations.

RESULTS:

Of the 200 patients studied, 74 per cent did not need subsequent surgical treatment. Therapeutic effect was influenced by several parameters: etiology of radicular compression: 65 per cent favorable results in herniated discs; 69 per cent in lumbar stenosis; and 91 per cent favorable results in segmental lumbar stenosis; age of patients: 100 per cent favorable in patients > 70 years, while only very few favorable results in patients < 20 years of age. Chronic or acute radicular pain: among the patients who had herniated discs requiring subsequent surgery, 65 per cent presented with acute lesions (pain for < 4 months). In patients with lumbar stenosis requiring surgery, 80 per cent had acute lesion and in patients with segmental lumbar stenosis, no patients complained of acute pain.

DISCUSSION:

Avoiding surgical treatment is not the only parameter which should be studied in evaluating the effectiveness of treatment. Lassale's pre and postoperative evaluation with a minimum 1 year follow up showed improvement in all non surgical cases. When compared to the literature, this study shows favorable long term results.