Steroid injections are often employed as an alternative treatment for radicular pain in patients with degenerative spinal disorders. Prospective randomised studies of the lumbar spine reveal contradictory results and non-randomised and most often retrospective studies of the cervical spine indicate pain reduction from steroid injections. No prospective randomised study on transforaminal steroid injections for the treatment of radicular pain in the cervical spine focusing on short-term results has been performed. Forty consecutive patients were employed for the study. The inclusion criteria were one-sided cervical radiculopathy with radicular distribution of arm pain distal to the elbow and corresponding significant degenerative pathology of the cervical spine at one or two levels on the same side as the radicular pain and visualised by MRI. A transforaminal technique was used for all injections. A positive response to a diagnostic selective nerve root block at one or two nerve roots was mandatory for all patients. The patients were randomised for treatment with steroids/local anaesthetics or saline/local anaesthetic. Only the neuroradiologist performing the blocks was aware of the content of the injection; all other persons involved in the study were blinded. Follow up was made 3 weeks after the randomised treatment by a clinical investigation and with a questionnaire focusing on the subjective effects from the injections. At follow up, there were no differences in treatment results in the two patient groups. Statistical analysis of the results confirmed the lack of difference in treatment effect. Further studies have to be performed before excluding steroids in such treatment and for evaluating the influence of local anaesthetics on radiculopathy in transforaminal injections.

In patients with radiculopathy due to degenerative disease in the cervical spine, surgical outcome is still presenting with moderate results. The preoperative investigations consist of clinical investigation, careful history and most often magnetic resonance imaging (MRI) of the cervical spine. When MRI shows multilevel degeneration, different strategies are used for indicating which nerve root/ roots are affected. Some authors use selective diagnostic nerve root blocks (SNRB) for segregating pain mediating nerve roots from nonpain mediators in such patients. The aim of the present study is to assess the ability of transforaminal SNRB to correlate clinical symptoms with MRI findings in patients with cervical radiculopathy and a two-level MRI degeneration, on the same side as the radicular pain. Thirty consecutive patients with cervical radiculopathy and two levels MRI pathology on the same side as the radicular pain were studied with SNRBs at both levels. All patients underwent clinical investigation and neck and arm pain assessment with visual analogue scales (VAS) before and after the blocks. The results from the SNRBs were compared to the clinical findings from neurological investigation as well as the MRI pathology and treatment results. Correlation between SNRB results and the level with most severe degree of MRI degeneration were 60% and correlation between SNRB results and levels decided by neurological deficits/dermatome radicular pain distribution were 28%. Twenty-two of the 30 patients underwent treatment guided by the SNRB results and 18 reported good/excellent outcome results. We conclude that the degree of MRI pathology, neurological investigation and the pain distribution in the arm are not reliable parameters enough when deciding the affected nerve root/ roots in patients with cervical radiculopathy and a two-level degenerative disease in the cervical spine. SNRB might be a helpful tool together with clinical findings/history and MRI of the cervical spine when performing preoperative investigations in patients with two or more level of degeneration presenting with radicular pain that can be attributed to the degenerative findings.Keywords Diagnostic nerve-root block AE Radiculopathy AE MRI AE Cervical spine AE Treatment Eur Spine J (2006) 15: 794-801

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Transforaminal injections are sometimes used for the diagnosis and treatment of painful conditions in the lumbar and to a lesser degree in the cervical spine. The technique is most often used when investigating/treating radiculopathy caused by degenerative disease. But how selective are the nerve root blocks? What possible structures other than the intended nerve root are affected from such injections? This study was undertaken in order to try to answer these questions, as no study focusing on the possible spread from the transforaminal selective nerve root blocks in the cervical spine has been performed earlier. In three groups of patients, each group including three patients, we injected three different volumes (0.6, 1.1 and 1.7 ml) with a transforaminal technique in the cervical spine. In all the injections, a small amount of contrast media was added. The spread of the injections were then investigated using multi-slice computed tomography with reconstructions. The imaging revealed a possible effect on other nerve roots than the intended ones when a larger volume was used for the root blocks. The spread was related to the injected volume as well as to local anatomy (size of foraminal area). In this study, only 0.6-ml injections could be accepted for being selective enough for diagnostic investigations.

Since many years we routinely use diagnostic selective nerve root blocks (SNRB) at our department when evaluating patients with cervical radiculopathy. Frequently patients who also presented with headache reported that the headache disappeared when the nerve root responsible for the radicular pain was blocked with local anaesthetics. Headache has been described as a companioning symptom related to cervical radiculopathy but has never before been evaluated with SNRB performed in the lower cervical spine. For this reason we added to our routine an evaluation of the response from the SNRB on headache in patients with cervical radiculopathy. The aim was to describe the frequency of headache in patients with cervical radiculopathy and its response to a selective nerve root block of the nerve root/roots responsible for the radiculopathy. Can nerve root compression in the lower cervical spine produce headache? In this consecutive series of 275 patients with cervical radiculopathy, 161 patients reported that they also suffered from daily or recurrent headache located most often unilaterally on the same side as the radiculopathy. All patients underwent a careful clinical examination by a neurosurgeon and a MRI of the cervical spine. The significantly compressed root/roots, according to the MRI, underwent SNRB with a local anaesthetic. The effect of the nerve root block on the radiculopathy and the headache was carefully noted and evaluated by a physiotherapist using visual analogue scales (VAS) before and after the SNRB. All patients with headache had tender points in the neck/ shoulder region on the affected side. Patients with headache graded significantly more limitations in daily activities and higher pain intensity in the neck/shoulder/arm than patients without headache. After selective nerve root block, 59% of the patients with headache reported 50% or more reduction of headache and of these 69% reported total relief. A significant correlation was seen between reduced headache intensity and reduced pain in the neck, shoulder and arm. The result indicates that cervical root compression from degenerative disease in the lower cervical spine producing radiculopathy might also induce headache.