Lousy Lumbar Literature or Spinal Stenosis Solutions?
Jan
17
Now that I have gotten your attention with these aggrandizing alliterations, I want to seriously report on a new study highlighted in Spine Journal. The hypothesis of the study was that patients with lumbar stenosis who received epidural steroid injections (ESI) would have better outcomes and fewer surgeries than patients who did not receive ESI.
Use of ESI in work comp and group health is very common, even though there is little evidence as to its long term benefit when it comes to treating lumbar stenosis. This new study was conducted by the Spine Patient Outcomes Research Trial or SPORT. SPORT has conducted numerous spine and neck studies at prominent universities across the country.
The conclusion is extremely illuminating — “ESIs were associated with significantly less improvement at 4 years” … “ESIs were associated with longer duration’s of surgery and longer hospital stay. There was no improvement in outcome with ESI whether patients were treated surgically or non-surgically”.
Fusions!! Stimulators!! Pain Pumps!! ESIs!! Does your UR vendor blindly rubber stamp requests for questionable procedures or do they follow the latest scientific evidence?
Call us, We can do better.
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