The use of transforaminal epidural steroid injection (TFESI) can be useful in improving the functional ability and radicular pain relief in patients who are not apt for surgical therapy with radicular complaints because of distant lateral lumbar disc hernia, as deduced from a study in Ideggyogyaszati szemle journal.

Out of all lumbar disc herniations, about 0.7 to 12% patients suffer from lateral lumbar disc herniations giving way to acute and persistent radicular pain. In individuals not responding to conservative therapies, and those who have not developed neurological deficits, it is not easy to decide surgical treatment. Sevket Evran and Salim Katar therefore focused on assessing the effect of TFESI on the improvement of pain and functional ability in FLDH patients.

Thirty-seven included patients had radicular pain due to distant lateral disc herniation evident from their MRI scan, no neurological deficit and no response to traditional treatment. Preganglionic approach was used for TFESI. The scores of Oswestry Disability Index (ODI) and Visual Analogue Scale (VAS) for 3rd week; 3rd and 6th month were compared.

The dwindling trend of both VAS and ODI scores were found to be statistically significant (p = 0.001) with mean values- 8.63 ± 0.55 and 52.38 ± 6.84, respectively (Table 1):

Thus, TFESI appears to be a promising approach to manage patients with radicular pain.