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Safety and Risk Mitigation for Cervical Interlaminar Epidural Steroid Injections

  • Interventional Pain Management (L Huynh and J Levin, Section Editors)
  • Published:
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Abstract

Purpose of Review

The purpose of this review is to describe cases of serious neurologic complications due to cervical interlaminar epidural steroid injection, safety techniques to mitigate the risks of these, and briefly cover other more common but less severe complications.

Recent Findings

The most common complications reported in the largest available cohort of epidural steroid injections include increased pain, steroid side effects, and vasovagal reaction without any cases of serious neurologic complications being captured.

Summary

The risk of neurologic damage due to aberrant needle location or space occupying lesions is very small, though not zero even if ideal technique is used. Proper utilization of risk mitigation techniques can further reduce the risk of these rare but serious complications.

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. Department of Physical Medicine and Rehabilitation, Vanderbilt University Medical Center, 2201 Children’s Way Suite 1318, Nashville, TN, 37212, USA

    Byron J. Schneider & Eric Sturos

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  1. Byron J. Schneider
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  2. Eric Sturos
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Correspondence to Byron J. Schneider.

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This article is part of the Topical Collection on Interventional Pain Management

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Schneider, B.J., Sturos, E. Safety and Risk Mitigation for Cervical Interlaminar Epidural Steroid Injections. Curr Phys Med Rehabil Rep 5, 193–199 (2017). https://doi.org/10.1007/s40141-017-0166-5

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