No Spine Injections For Chronic Back Pain: Study

New Delhi: Adults with chronic back pain must not be given spine injections as they provide little or no pain relief compared with sham injections, according to an international study, published on Thursday.

A team of clinicians and patients from Canada, the US, and Australia strongly recommended against epidural steroid injections and nerve blocks for people living with chronic back pain (lasting at least three months) that is not associated with cancer, infection, or inflammatory arthritis.

Chronic back pain is the leading cause of disability worldwide -- estimated to affect one in five adults aged 20-59. Older adults tend to suffer more with the condition.

Epidural steroid injections, nerve blocks, and radiofrequency ablation (using radio waves to destroy nerves) are widely used to stop pain signals from reaching the brain.

However, current guidelines provide conflicting recommendations for their use.

To probe, the team compared the benefits and harms of 13 common interventional procedures, or combinations of procedures, for chronic, non-cancer spine pain against sham procedures. These include injections of such as local anesthetic, steroids, or their combination; epidural injections, and radiofrequency ablations.