A new study from the AAAHC Institute for Quality Improvement reveals that spinal injections help more than three out of every four patients experience back pain relief but only slightly more than half say they reduce their pain medications after the procedure, according to a news release from the AAAHC Institute.
In the study of 107 ambulatory care centers who performed approximately 139,000 low back injection for pain management annually and submitted data on 2,227 routine, uncomplicated procedures for the study, 78 percent of patients undergoing the procedure reported their pain had improved and 82 percent reported the ability to perform daily activities, although only 53 percent said they were able to reduce their pain medications.
"Low back injection was very effective in managing pain in this patient population," said Girish P. Joshi, MBBS, MD, FFARCSI, who was a member of the AAAHC Institute work group that designed the study and is professor of anesthesiology and pain management and director of perioperative medicine, University of Texas Southwestern Medical Center, Dallas, according to the release. "Although only about half of the patients were able to reduce their pain medications, more than eight out of 10 were able to return to their normal activities. That increase in physical activity may account for the need to continue the medications."
Additional study findings included:
- Most frequent symptoms for which the procedure was performed, with some patients reporting multiple symptoms, were pain (96 percent), limited range of motion (47 percent), spinal tenderness (28 percent), weakness (28 percent), positive straight-leg test (21 percent) and numbness (5 percent).
- Pre-procedure times — defined as the time from patient check-in to insertion of the needle — had a median of 48 minutes.
- Average procedure times — defined as the time from the beginning of the procedure (needle in) to the time the procedure has ended (needle out) — had a median of 7 minutes.
- Discharge times — defined as needle out to the time the patient meets discharge criteria — had a median of 29 minutes.
- Facility time — from the time patients check into the facility to the time they meet discharge criteria — had a median of 86 minutes.
Read the news release from the AAAHC Institute about spinal injections (pdf).
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