Therapeutic efficacy of selective nerve root blocks in the management of lumbar radicular pain

Abstract

Lower back pain is generally most common musculoskeletal complaints in routine clinical practice now a days. Lower back pain is most significant reason behind development of walking disability. Irritation and pressure on nerve root in lumbar region leads to Lumbar sacral radiculopathy and its very painful condition. Reason behind radiculopathy can be herniating disc in lumbar region, vertebral defect or disintegration and neural foramen size decrease. Epidural steroid injection is effective treatment for lumbar pain. Study objective is to assess the efficacy of hypertonic saline in radicular lower back pain. Numerical Rating Scale (NRS) and Oswestry Disability Index (ODI) was used as data collecting tools. comparison between intervention and control group for pain score at three and six months. With p value =0.04 and 0.02 respectively for 3 and 6 months. shown pain was reduced gradually at 3 and 6 months. As conclusion was Superior and longer duration of effect was observed with addition of hypertonic saline along with steroid in lumbar radiculopathy. And this can be used as a major cost-effective adjuvant.