Efficacy of epidural steroid injection in elderly patients: does diagnosis affect treatment success

Introduction: Epidural steroid injections are a preferred interventional pain treatment for patients with low back pain. Our aim was to investigate the effectiveness of epidural steroid injections treatment in elderly patients and to examine the effect of patients’ diagnosis on the treatment success. Materials and Methods: Patients over the age of 65 who underwent epidural injections between January 2020 and January 2022 were retrospectively screened. The patients were divided into three groups according to their diagnosis: disc herniation, spinal stenosis, and failed back surgery syndrome. Numeric rating scale scores of all patients before the procedure, at three weeks, and at three months were noted. Results: A total of 234 patients were included in the study. Of these, 89 had disc herniation, 98 had spinal stenosis, and 47 had a history of failed back surgery. There were no significant differences between the groups in terms of age, gender, symptom duration, pre-procedural pain score, medical treatment, radiation dose, and procedure duration. Although a significant improvement was detected in pain scores at all follow-ups in all groups, these scores were found to be significantly lower in the disc herniation group than the spinal stenosis and failed back surgery groups at the three-week and month follow-ups. Conclusions: Epidural steroid injections has been found to be effective in back pain in elderly. In addition, elderly patients with disc herniation had a better response to treatment than those with spinal stenosis and failed back surgery. Further prospective and long-term follow-up studies are needed to support these results. Keywords: Aged; Low Back Pain; Injections, Epidural; Spinal Stenosis; Failed Back Surgery Syndrome.