Comparative studies on the success level of sonographic guided epidural steroid injection and its effectiveness with fluoroscopy techniques in treating lumbar radicular pain

Limitations of using fl uoroscopic guidance in epidural steroid injection have encouraged the researchers to look for an appropriate alternative method.Compared to fl uoroscopy, sonography has exceptional properties that have made it a useful method.The present research seeks to study the success of sonographic guided epidural steroid injection and compare its effectiveness with fl uoroscopy in treating lumbar radicular pain.This is a single-blind, randomized research conducted on 50 patients complaining about lumbar radicular pain.The participants were then randomly divided into two therapeutic groups consisting of 25 people: sonographic guided and fl uoroscopy guided groups.The initial examination recorded the demographic information of each patient in his profi le.The pain scale and performance disability and therapeutic satisfaction of each patient were measured 48 hours and 2 weeks after intervention and analyzed using statistical tests.The patients studied aged from 23 to 70 years (with an average of 45.74 ± 16.02 years) and were divided equally between the two groups in terms of gender.There was no statistically signifi cant difference between the two groups in terms of contrast matter distribution, but the average injection procedure in sonography group (101.22 ± 36.48 s) was signifi cantly faster than what was observed in fl uoroscopy group (311.46 ± 52.13 s) (P-value < 0.05).There was no statistically signifi cant difference between the two groups in terms of pain variable, performance disability and patients' satisfaction (P-value > 0.05).There was no statistically signifi cant correlation between gender and BMI with pain and performance disability in any one of these groups.The results have shown that sonographic and fl uoroscopic tools have equal capabilities in epidural steroid injection.The superiority of sonography to fl uoroscopy have made it possible to use this technique for epidural steroid injection.