1. The impact of type 2 diabetes on numeric pain score reduction following cervical transforaminal epidural steroid injections
- Author
-
Vincent Y. Ma and Ali Shakir
- Subjects
Male ,Triamcinolone acetonide ,Injections, Epidural ,Pain ,Type 2 diabetes ,Comorbidity ,Cohort Studies ,Risk Factors ,medicine ,Prevalence ,Humans ,Radiology, Nuclear Medicine and imaging ,Radiculopathy ,Ohio ,Pain Measurement ,Retrospective Studies ,Neck pain ,Analgesics ,business.industry ,Retrospective cohort study ,Middle Aged ,medicine.disease ,Pain Clinics ,Treatment Outcome ,Diabetes Mellitus, Type 2 ,Radicular pain ,Anesthesia ,Ambulatory ,Female ,Steroids ,medicine.symptom ,business ,Body mass index ,medicine.drug - Abstract
This study aimed to determine whether the presence of type 2 diabetes impairs the therapeutic response to transforaminal cervical epidural steroid injections (TF-CESI) in the treatment of pain due to cervical radiculopathy. This is a retrospective cohort study of patients with cervical radiculopathy who underwent TF-CESI performed by a single physician. Single community-based multidisciplinary pain clinic and ambulatory surgery center. Patients underwent from one to three TF‐CESI with dexamethasone or triamcinolone. Change in self-reported numerical pain score. Out of 387 charts reviewed, complete data were available for 329 subjects who underwent TF-CESI from February 2006 through January 2010. The injections consisted of either 40 mg triamcinolone or 15 mg dexamethasone. Of the 329 total subjects, 35 had type 2 diabetes and 294 did not. The diabetic group had a mean age of 58.1 years with standard deviation (SD) of 11.2, mean body mass index (BMI) of 33.1 (SD 7.1), mean pre-procedure pain score of 6.7 (SD 2.2) and mean reduction in pain score of 2.5 (SD 2.4). The non-diabetic group had a mean age of 52.8 (SD 12.4), mean BMI of 28.2 (SD 5.4), mean pre-procedure pain score of 6.7 (SD 1.8), and mean reduction in pain score of 2.4 (SD 2.2). A two-sample t test with equivalent variance showed no statistically significant difference in the mean reduction in pain score between the diabetic and non-diabetic groups. The patients in the diabetic group were typically older and had higher BMIs. The efficacy of TF-CESI for treating cervical radicular pain in this set of 329 patients was independent of the presence of type 2 diabetes.
- Published
- 2013