The effect of facet joint injection on lumbar spinal stenosis with radiculopathy

OBJECTIVES: Facet Joint Injection (FJI) is known to be effective in axial back pain, but the purpose of this study was to assess the effects of FJI on patients treated with it among those with Lumbar Spinal Stenosis (LSS). METHODS: We conducted a retrospective database analysis and investigated electronic medical records of 125 LSS patients treated with FJI in the pain clinic of Chungbuk National University Hospital from November 2, 2016 to July 31, 2017. Sex, age, histories of low back surgery, complaining of neurogenic claudication, symptomatic sites of patients, FJI sites, number of sites of FJI, triamcinolone dosage, Numeric Rating Scale (NRS) before and after treatment, facet joint capsule rupture during treatment, and improvement of neurogenic claudication after treatment, were examined. RESULTS: Among 125 patients, we investigated 91 patients who met the criteria. There was significant difference in NRS before and after treatment (p<0.000). Forty one patients with reduction of NRS more than 30% after FJI were allocated to effect group. FJI was more effective in patients who did not have the surgery (p=0.044), as well as those who showed an improved neurogenic claudication after treatment (p=0.001). Other measured values did not show statistical significances. CONCLUSIONS: FJI has relatively a lower risk and is simpler in terms of techniques than other interventional treatments performed within the spinal canal. Therefore, FJI may be another interventional treatment option in patients with pain by LSS. In the future, studies for FJI indication in LSS patients should be additionally required.