The Journal of Bone and Joint Surgery (American). 2006;88:1722-1725.
doi:10.2106/JBJS.E.00278
© 2006 The Journal of Bone and Joint Surgery, Inc.
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Nerve Root Blocks in the Treatment of Lumbar Radicular Pain

A Minimum Five-Year Follow-Up

K. Daniel Riew, MD1, Jong-Beom Park, MD1, Yong-Sun Cho, MD1, Louis Gilula, MD1, Alpesh Patel, MD1, Lawrence G. Lenke, MD1 and Keith H. Bridwell, MD1

1 Department of Orthopaedic Surgery, Washington University School of Medicine, One Barnes-Jewish Hospital Plaza, Suite 11300 West Pavilion, St. Louis, MO 63110. E-mail address for K.D. Riew: riewd{at}wustl.edu

Investigation performed at the Department of Orthopaedic Surgery, Cervical Spine Service, Barnes-Jewish Hospital at Washington University School of Medicine, St. Louis, Missouri

NOTE: The authors acknowledge the contributions of Dr. Yuming Yin and Dr. Brett Taylor for their assistance in the preparation of this manuscript.

The authors did not receive grants or outside funding in support of their research for or preparation of this manuscript. They did not receive payments or other benefits or a commitment or agreement to provide such benefits from a commercial entity. No commercial entity paid or directed, or agreed to pay or direct, any benefits to any research fund, foundation, educational institution, or other charitable or nonprofit organization with which the authors are affiliated or associated.

Background: In a previous prospective, randomized, controlled, double-blinded study on the effect of nerve root blocks on the need for operative treatment of lumbar radicular pain, we found that injections of corticosteroids were more effective than bupivacaine for up to thirteen to twenty-eight months. We performed a minimum five-year followup of those patients who had avoided surgery.

Methods: All of the patients were considered to be operative candidates by the treating surgeon, and all had initially requested operative intervention. They had then been randomized to be treated with a selective nerve-root block with either bupivacaine or bupivacaine and betamethasone. Both the treating physician and the patient were blinded to the type of medication. Of fifty-five randomized patients, twenty-nine avoided an operation in the original study. Twenty-one of those twenty-nine patients were reevaluated with a follow-up questionnaire at a minimum of five years after the initial block.

Results: Seventeen of the twenty-one patients still had not had operative intervention. There was no difference between the group treated with bupivacaine alone and the group treated with bupivacaine and betamethasone with regard to the avoidance of surgery for five years. At the five-year follow-up evaluation, all of the patients who had avoided operative treatment had significant decreases in neurological symptoms and back pain compared with the baseline values.

Conclusions: The majority of patients with lumbar radicular pain who avoid an operation for at least one year after receiving a nerve root injection with bupivacaine alone or in combination with betamethasone will continue to avoid operative intervention for a minimum of five years.

Level of Evidence: Therapeutic Level IV. See Instructions to Authors for a complete description of levels of evidence.


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