Ultrasound-guided Cervical Retro-laminar Block for Cervical Radicular Pain: A Comparative Analysis.

STUDY DESIGN AND OBJECTIVE: Cervical radiculopathy is a common clinical condition, often treated with cervical epidural steroid injections (ESI). Retro-laminar cervical blocks (RLCB) may be considered safer than ESI as they do not require entering the neuroaxis.In this study, we evaluated the outcome of RLCB in patients with cervical radiculopathy who had failed conservative treatment and were candidates for cervical spine decompression surgery. BACKGROUND DATA: Recently, we reported a clinical pilot study investigating the treatment of cervical radiculopathy with an ultrasound-guided RLCB. MATERIALS AND METHODS: A retrospective, comparative analysis of prospectively collected data was carried out on the medical records of all patients who underwent RLCB for cervical radicular pain, between August 2019 and March 2021. RESULTS: Ninety-eight patients were included in the analysis, with a total of 139 procedures.A significant pain reduction was achieved for most patients immediately after the procedure and at the final follow up (16.9±13.4 wk). The mean numerical rating scale for the whole cohort changed from 7.21±2.51 to 4.04±2.51 ( P -value <0.01) at the time of discharge, with similar patterns at the subgroup level. A functional evaluation was carried out by a questionnaire (Neck Disability Index-NDI). Overall, 83% of patients had a lower postprocedural NDI than preprocedural NDI. For 80% of patients, the improvement of NDI surpassed the minimal clinically important change at the final assessment. Most patients (61%) were discharged after just one RLCB. Eight patients (8%) eventually underwent surgery. The most frequent complaint was injection site soreness; however, there were no major adverse events reported. CONCLUSIONS: These findings suggest that RLCB can be performed as an alternative to cervical ESI and decompressive surgery in patients with cervical radicular pain that's refractory to noninvasive treatment. More comparative and prospective studies are needed to confirm our results.

Gender differences in multifidus fatty infiltration, sarcopenia and association with preoperative pain and functional disability in patients with lumbar spinal stenosis.

BACKGROUND: In patients with lumbar spinal stenosis, female gender has been associated with higher pain and functional disability. Sarcopenia and multifidus atrophy have also been associated with symptomatic severity. PURPOSE: The purpose of this study was to determine if gender differences in sarcopenia and multifidus atrophy are associated with gender disparities in disease symptomatology. STUDY DESIGN: Prospectively collected medical records and imaging studies were retrospectively reviewed. PATIENT SAMPLE: We retrospectively reviewed medical records and imaging studies for 63 patients with clinically and radiologically defined lumbar spinal stenosis at L3/4 or L4/5 who underwent minimally invasive decompression. OUTCOME MEASURES: Pain and functional disability were measured using the Oswestry Disability Index (ODI) and visual analogue scores for back pain (VASB) and leg pain (VASL). METHODS: Multifidus total cross sectional area (tCSA), multifidus functional cross sectional area (fnCSA), multifidus fatty infiltration (FI), psoas tCSA, and psoas relative cross sectional area (rCSA) were evaluated by univariable and multivariable regression to identify gender linked and gender independent predictors of higher ODI, VASB, and VASL. RESULTS: Female gender was significantly associated with lower multifidus fnCSA (p < .001), higher multifidus FI (p < .001), lower psoas tCSA (p < .001), lower psoas rCSA (p = .002), and higher preoperative ODI (p = .008). Lower psoas rCSA (p = .044) and psoas tCSA in the lowest sex specific quartile (p = .034) were significantly associated with higher preoperative VASB and psoas rCSA less than the sex specific median (p = .050) was significantly associated with higher preoperative VASL after controlling for age and gender. Multifidus FI was significantly associated with preoperative ODI after adjusting for age (p = .048) but not after controlling additionally for gender (p = .651). CONCLUSIONS: Female patients with lumbar spinal stenosis may develop more severe and functionally significant multifidus atrophy, resulting in a more severe clinical course with higher functional disability. Sarcopenia was significantly associated with higher preoperative back pain and leg pain in both male and female patients with lumbar spinal stenosis.