Steroid injection only minimally useful for sciatica

Reported by Susan Aldridge, PhD, medical journalist

Patients with acute sciatica get just short-term relief from a steroid injection.
Sciatica caused by a herniated spinal disk is very painful. iIt happens when a bulging disk presses on a nerve and it causes numbness and weakness as well as pain. Often, this condition is treated by an injection of a steroid drug. Doctors at Brigham and Women's Hospital, Boston, set out to assess the effectiveness of this treatment.

In this study, a group of 65 patients was assigned to either a single intravenous dose of the steroid methylprednisolone or to placebo injection. Leg pain decreased significantly in the steroid group compared to the placebo group. The improvement, however, lasted only a couple of days. In both groups, pain decreased gradually in the ten days after treatment. The researchers conclude that intravenous steroids should not be used widely in the treatment of sciatica as they do not seem to benefit the patient very much.

Source
Spine 15th February 2006

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