The relationship between the grading of lumbar spinal stenosis and pain improvement after caudal epidural steroid injection.

Objective:  This study aimed to determine the relation of severity of lumbar spinal stenosis and pain improvement after caudal epidural injection. Material and Methods:  70 patients of neurogenic claudication were included from July 2019 to June 2020. MRI lumbosacral spine was done of all patients to categorize the degree of spinal stenosis on T2-W axial. All patients were given caudal epidural steroid injection as a day case procedure. Follow-up was done at 3 & 8 weeks and pain improvement was assessed by using Ronald satisfaction score. Results:  Mean age was 37.9 ± 7.8 years. 48.6% patients were male and 51.6% were female. The improvement was observed in 28 patients (40%) at 3 weeks and in 46 patients (65.7%) at 8 weeks. There  was no  statistically significant  relationship between  lumbar spinal stenosis and pain improvements at 3 weeks (p value 0.30) and 8 weeks (p value 0.32). Conclusion:  The grade of lumbar spinal stenosis has no significant effect on pain improvement after caudal epidural steroid injection. Keywords:  LSS (Lumbar spinal stenosis), caudal epidural steroid injection (ESI), neurogenic claudication, MRI (Magnetic resonance imaging), T2W (T2 weighted) images.