EPIDURAL CORTICOSTEROID INJECTION VERSUS CONSERVATIVE MANAGEMENT: WHICH IS BETTER & EFFECTIVE TREATMENT OF LOW BACK PAIN

Objectives: We aimed to document the effectiveness of ESI (Epidural Corticosteroid Injection) in sciatica and low back pain cases who failed in the course of traditional treatment. Material & Methods: Our prospective, observational and descriptive analysis research held at Sir Ganga Ram Hospital, Lahore (February to November 2017). The research sample included seventy sciatica and low back pain patients of (20 70) years of age from both males and females. All the patients failed in the course of conservative management approach. An experienced and trained anaesthesia injected the epidural steroid injection to the patients. Patients also appeared in the assessment of ODI (Oswestry Disability Index) and all the patients having ODI rate above forty-five percent or a rate of pain more than five in the timespan of one week given an injection of epidural steroid injection once again with a maximum dose not more than two injections. All the patients also had a follow-up at an interval of one week, one month, three months and six months for the determination of ESI effectiveness. Results: In the total of seventy patients male and female were respectively 31 and 39 with respective proportions of 44.29% and 55.71%. Females were dominant over males in terms of number. Patients were in the age bracket of (20 70) years with a mean age of (53.19 +/- 8.64) years. ODI was at baseline and at six months (59.11 +/- 6.34) & (31.25 +/- 4.19) respectively with a significant P-value under 0.05. Pain score mean and SD values at baseline, one week, one month, three months and six months were respectively (7.77 +/- 2.41), (4.29 +/- 1.74), (4.11 +/- 1.85), (4.03 +/- 1.63) and (3.87 +/- 1.09) with a significant P-value under 0.05. Conclusion: Epidural steroid injection is an effective treatment in order to control sciatica and low back pain especially in the cases who failed conservative management of the disease without any involvement of side effects.