Cervical epidural steroid injections for symptomatic disc herniations

Burhanettin Usta, Bünyamin Muslu, Rüveyda İrem Demircioğlu, Hüseyin Sert, Muhammet Gözdemir, Safinaz Karabayırlı

Department Of Anesthesiology, Fatih University School Of Medicine, Ankara, Turkey

Keywords: cervical epidural steroid injection, patient satisfaction, pain score

Abstract

Cervical radiculopathy is widespread in society, the methods used in the treatment of a wide range of conservative treatment, surgical treatment is located. Invasive approaches are optimal for the treatment of radicular pain there is no consensus yet. However, cervical epidural steroid injection (CESI) has been used for the patients with symptoms of cervical discopathy. The 6-month period of treatment results of 58 patients, diagnosed as symptomatic cervical radiculopathy and applied CESI within one year period, were evaluated retrospectively. While the patients were in a sitting position and the head flexed after sterilization, the C7-T1 epidural space was entered using the median approach and the hanging drop technique and the 6 ml solution, consisted of triamsinolon 80 mg with 10 mg levobupivacaine, was injected prepared previously. Following the CESI application, the posttreatment VAS values of the patients were significantly lower than pretreatment VAS values. The treatment success rates for CESI application were 93% in first month, 86% in 3th months, 72% in 6th months respectively. The CESI application is an effective method in the treatment of cervical radiculopathy and reduces the rate of patients needing surgery.