Background : The purpose of this report is to compare the effects of recently often practiced epidural injection and selective nerve root block to treat buttock and radiating limb pain due to lumber spine disorder.
Method : For this study we enrolled patients who were treated with epidural injection(121 cases) or selective nerve root block (26 cases) in our-patient department of orthopedic surgery in Kosin University Gospel Hospital for buttock pain and radiating pain on lower limbs caused by lumbar spine disorders from August 2002 to August 2003. Selected patients were grouped into two according to the injection method for observation. Visual analogue scales(VAS) of each patient were checked after thorough observation and traced four times, pre-injection, post injection in 1 month, post injection in 3 months, and final follow-up(mean : 6.3 months, range: 3-15 months), and compared results(7.7, 4.5, 5.0, 5.6) than epidural injection(7.6, 3.0, 3.4, 49) in VAS analysis at each follow-up intervals. There is statistical significancy by using the paired t-test (p<0.01). This study shows these complications: hypotension, transient motor weakness, dizziness, dyspnea, headache, fever, aggressive pain, palpitation, dura puncture.
Conclusion : Selective nerve root block was discovered to be relatively more effective than epidural injection on reducing pain in lumbar spine disorders.
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