Commentary: Unnecessary preoperative epidural steroid injections lead to cerebrospinal fluid leaks confirmed during spinal stenosis surgery

BACKGROUND: Increasingly, older patients with severe spinal stenosis/instability undergo multiple unnecessary preoperative epidural spinal injections (ESI), despite their risks and lack of long-term benefits. Here we add to the list of risks by showing how often preoperative ESI lead to punctate cerebrospinal fluid (CSF) fistulas documented during subsequent surgery (e.g. multilevel laminectomies with non-instrumented fusions). METHODS: A series of 39 patients with spinal stenosis/instability prospectively underwent multilevel laminectomy/non-instrumented fusion utilizing lamina autograft and NanOss Bioactive. We asked how often preoperative ESI were performed in this population and how frequently they contributed to operatively confirmed punctate cerebrospinal fluid (CSF) fistulas. Notably, CSF leaks were clearly attributed to ESI, as they were located centrally/paracentrally at the L4-L5 level, just below hypertrophied/ossified yellow ligament (OYL), and were the exact size of a Tuohy needle with clean edges. RESULTS: An average of 4.1 (range 2-12) preoperative ESI were performed in 33 of 39 patients undergoing average 4.3 level laminectomies and 1.3 level non-instrumented fusions; 6 (18.2%) patients exhibited operatively confirmed, punctate CSF fistulas attributed to these ESI. The most recent injections were administered between 2 and 5 weeks prior to surgery (average 3.9 weeks). Fistulas were primarily repaired with 7-0 GORE-TEX sutures and fibrin Sealant (Tisseel). CONCLUSIONS: Of 33 patients undergoing multilevel laminectomies with non-instrumented fusions receiving preoperative ESI, 6 (18.2%) had operatively confirmed punctate CSF fistulas due to preoperative ESI performed an average of 4.1 times per patient.