Steroid Injections Should be Last Resort for Spinal Stenosis Patients, Study Says

A study in the journal Spine says that when weighing treatments for spinal stenosis, patients should consider steroid injections last.

 

The study compared outcomes for spinal stenosis patients who received steroid injections in the Spine Outcomes Research Trial to patients who did not receive steroid injections when seeking treatment for spinal stenosis.

 

Patients who received steroid injections showed less eventual improvement in physical function than those who did not receive steroid injections, suggesting that steroid injections should be used as a treatment for spinal stenosis only when other non-surgical treatments are ineffective and the patient is not a candidate for surgery.