Although epidural injections of methylprednisolone may afford short-term improvement in leg pain and sensory deficits in patients with sciatica due to a herniated nucleus pulposus, this treatment offers no significant functional benefit, nor does it reduce the need for surgery.

Although radiofrequency facet joint denervation may provide some short-term improvement in functional disability among patients with chronic low back pain, the efficacy of this treatment has not been established.

The authors conclude that both functional disability scales accurately discriminated between these two groups of patients with low back pain of very different clinical and electromyographic severity.