First episode: Factors associated with treatment outcomes for low back pain injections

In the first episode of RAPM Focus, Editor-in-Chief Brian Sites, MD, interviews Stephen P. Cohen, MD, first author of the paper “Multicenter study evaluating factors associated with treatment outcome for low back pain injections”. This prospective study looked at 346 patients receiving one of three procedures: epidural steroid injection for sciatica, sacroiliac joint injections for axial low back pain, and facet interventions for axial low back pain. The study was designed to evaluate associations among more than two dozen demographic, clinical, and technical factors on treatment outcomes. Results found that patients with lower baseline pain scores, depressive symptomatology, and obesity experienced smaller pain reductions. Smoking and sleep deprivation were also associated with poorer outcomes. Dr. Cohen is a professor of anesthesiology and critical care medicine, neurology, physical medicine & rehabilitation and psychiatry and behavioral sciences at the Johns Hopkins School of Medicine and Uniformed Services University of the Health Sciences in Baltimore, MD. He is also chief of pain medicine and director of the Blaustein Pain Treatment Center at Johns Hopkins and director of pain research at Walter Reed National Military Medical Center.

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