J Korean Pain Soc.  1988 Dec;1(2):181-187.

Pain Management for Low Back Pain and Lumbosacral Radiculopathy

• Kang KM
• Ban JS
• Min BW

Abstract

Since the introduction of epidural corticosteroid injectians for the management of sciatica1), lumbosacral radiculopathy has become one of the most common pain problems encountered by anesthesiologists. In order to function effectively, anesthesiologists should be able to: (1) recognize those syndromes which may respond to nerve block;(2)understand the pathophysiology of the conditions being treated and (3)be familiar with alternate therapeutic pathways for patients not responding to merre block. There are many etiologic factors of low back pain and lumbosacral radiculopathy. Particularly, Nerve root compression caused by a protruding disc, a osteophyte or tumors are usually responsible for pain, Neural inflammation, therefore, is considered to play a major role in pain production. The use of local anesthetics in mixture with steroids is believed to break down neural inflammation. Steroids and local anesthetics were injected lumbar or caudal epidmal to 106 patients for the purpose of relieving low back pain and lumbosacral radiculopathy. The results are as follows: Excellent pain relieved group: 27 patients (25.5%) Good pain relieved group: 49 patients (46.1%) Fair pain relieved group: 15 patients (14.2%) Not effective group: 15 patients (14.2%)

MeSH Terms

Anesthetics, Local
Humans
Inflammation
Low Back Pain*
Osteophyte
Pain Management*
Radiculopathy*
Steroids
Anesthetics, Local
Steroids