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Cervical Transforaminal Injection of Steroids

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Encyclopedia of Pain

Synonyms

Cervical periradicular epidural steroid injection; Cervical selective nerve root injection

Definition

Cervical transforaminal injection of corticosteroids is a treatment for cervical radicular pain in which corticosteroids are delivered into a cervical intervertebral neuroforamen.

Characteristics

Cervical radicular pain affects about one person per 1,000 of population, per year (Radhakrishnan et al. 1994), and is most often caused by a disc herniation or foraminal stenosis. Its natural history can be favorable (Bogduk et al. 1999), but not all patients recover naturally. For relieving cervical radicular pain, conservative therapy, typically including graduated exercise and oral analgesics, is supported only by observational studies, which have not controlled for natural history or nonspecific effects of treatment. The controlled studies that have been conducted have shown no significant benefit for traction or exercises (British Association of Physical Medicine 1966; Goldie...

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References

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Correspondence to James P. Rathmell .

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Rathmell, J.P. (2013). Cervical Transforaminal Injection of Steroids. In: Gebhart, G.F., Schmidt, R.F. (eds) Encyclopedia of Pain. Springer, Berlin, Heidelberg. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-642-28753-4_651

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