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Abstract
Background: This study was to assess the clinical efficacy of epidural injections with tumor necrosis factor-alpha (TNF-α) inhibitor in patients with chronic radicular pain caused by lumbar spinal stenosis (LSS).
Methods: In a randomized controlled trial (RCT), patients diagnosed with mild-to-moderate LSS underwent epidural intervention with three different drugs and were allocated to TNF-α inhibitor group (Group A), steroid group (Group B) and lidocaine-only group (Group C). All patients were evaluated by visual analog scale (VAS) for leg pain and Oswestry disability index (ODI) to assess function. They all received a 6-month follow-up.
Results: Ninety patients were randomly assigned to three groups, for 30 cases in each group. A total of 82 participants (91.1%) completed the follow-up. Pain relief and improvement of movement function after epidural administration in Group A were more significant than those of groups B and C (p < .05) during the 6-month follow-up, while it showed no significant difference between groups B and C (p > .05).
Conclusions: Our results indicated that epidural administration with TNF-α inhibitor may be a useful conservative method for the treatment of radicular pain caused by LSS.
Trial registration: ClinicalTrials.gov Identifier: NCT04062474.
Author contributions
Peiran Wei and Liming Wang conceived and designed the experiment, and are responsible for the integrity of the data. Peiran Wei collected patient samples, analyzed and interpreted the data, and prepared the manuscript. Liming Wang, Yan Xu and Qingqiang Yao reviewed the manuscript. And Liming Wang approved the final version of the manuscript. All authors have read and approved the final submitted manuscript.
Disclosure statement
The authors declare that they have no competing interests.