Epiduroscopy in the treatment of chronic low back pain: A retrospective study

INTRODUCTION: Chronic low back pain is a condition that impairs people’s quality of life, has an indirect impact on society, and results in economic labor losses. The results of epiduroscopy performed in our clinic for chronic low back pain were evaluated in this study.
METHODS: Patients who were admitted to our clinic between January 1, 2018, and January 1, 2022, and underwent epiduroscopy due to chronic low back pain were included in this study. Medical records of these patients were reviewed retrospectively, and their pain was assessed using the visual analog scale (VAS) scores in the files, as well as their functional status according to the Oswestry disability index (ODI), and their satisfaction using the Odom criteria. The VAS and ODI values of patients who had epiduroscopy were assessed before, after, and the 2nd, 1st, and the 3rd month after the procedure. The patients were divided into three groups according to the pathology (Group spinal stenosis-SS, Group lumbar disk hernia-LDH, and Group LDH+SS-SLD).
RESULTS: Of the 192 patients, 114 (59.4%) were female and 78 (40.6%) were male. There were 78 patients (40.6%) in Group SS, 62 patients (32.3%) in Group LDH, and 52 patients (27.1%) in Group SLD. There was no statistical difference seen between the groups in pre operative and post-operative VAS values (p>0.05). The 3rd month post-operative data demonstrated no statistical differences in patient satisfaction due to epiduroscopy between groups (p>0.05). There was a statistically significant improvement in pre-operative and post-operative VAS and ODI scores (p<0.05).
DISCUSSION AND CONCLUSION: Epiduroscopy techniques produce excellent results in managing low back pain in eligible patients.