title: Cervical radicular pain: the role of interlaminar and transforaminal epidural injections.
abstract: Chronic neck pain and cervical radicular pain are relatively common in the adult population. Treatment for chronic radicular pain recalcitrant to conservative management includes surgical management as well as interventional techniques with epidural injections utilizing either an interlaminar approach or transforaminal approach. Although there have been multiple systematic reviews and randomized clinical trials of cervical interlaminar epidural injections, the literature is sparse in reference to cervical transforaminal epidural injections. Overall, there is good evidence for the effectiveness of cervical interlaminar epidural injections in managing cervical disc herniation and fair evidence in managing central spinal stenosis and postsurgery syndrome. The evidence is poor, however, for cervical transforaminal epidural injections. Complications with cervical interlaminar epidural injections are rare, but more commonly occur with transforaminal epidural injections and can be fatal. Emerging concepts in pain include further randomized trials; proper placebo design; focus on control design (either active control or placebo control); and appropriate methodologic quality assessment and evidence synthesis.
authors: Pain Management Center of Paducah, 2831 Lone Oak Road, Paducah, KY, 42003, USA, drlm@thepainmd.com.
authors: Laxmaiah
authors: L
authors: Manchikanti
authors: Frank J E
authors: FJ
authors: Falco
authors: Sudhir
authors: S
authors: Diwan
authors: Joshua A
authors: JA
authors: Hirsch
authors: Howard S
authors: HS
authors: Smith
mesh_terms: D000305:Adrenal Cortex Hormones / Q000627:therapeutic use; D000328:Adult; D000893:Anti-Inflammatory Agents / Q000627:therapeutic use; D002574:Cervical Vertebrae / Q000503:physiopathology*; D059350:Chronic Pain / Q000188:drug therapy* / Q000209:etiology; D019317:Evidence-Based Medicine; D005260:Female; D006801:Humans; D007268:Injections, Epidural; D055959:Intervertebral Disc Degeneration / Q000150:complications / Q000188:drug therapy*; D008297:Male; D019547:Neck Pain / Q000188:drug therapy* / Q000209:etiology; D009407:Nerve Block / Q000379:methods*; D010147:Pain Measurement; D011785:Quality Assurance, Health Care; D011843:Radiculopathy / Q000150:complications / Q000188:drug therapy*; D016032:Randomized Controlled Trials as Topic; D018570:Risk Assessment; D016896:Treatment Outcome
chemical_list: D000305:Adrenal Cortex Hormones; D000893:Anti-Inflammatory Agents