Clinical Efficacy of a Novel Drug Cocktail for Selective Nerve Root Block in Lumbar Radiculopathy

Background: Lumbosacral radicular pain due to disc herniation is one of the common disabling conditions in orthopaedic clinics. Most of these patients generally recover well even with non-operative treatment. The condition involves back pain, which may radiate to the lower limbs, and neurological symptoms, which involve a specific nerve root. Selective nerve root blocks is a common intervention, which are used to control the pain and neurological symptoms associated with chronic lumbar radiculopathy. To evaluate the efficacy Aims And Objectives: of single dose SNRB with 2ml of methylprednisolone acetate (80mg) and 3ml of Bupivacaine (0.5%), 5ML of Hypertonic Saline. Total 10ml of Cocktail in patients with single level unilateral disc prolapse with lumbar radiculopathy. This study was conduc Materials And Methods: ted in the Orthopaedics department of a tertiary care hospital. There were 60 radicular pain patients who were confirmed by MRI. All patients who met the inclusion criteria are subjected to SNRB with 10ml of Cocktail (2ml of methylprednisolone acetate (80mg) and 3ml of Bupivacaine (0.5%), 5ML of Hypertonic Saline) Outcome of the treatment was prospectively evaluated till 6 months of follow up using VAS and ODI score. Ethical Committee approval was taken. In our study Mean VAS score was 7.987 ±0.82 preoperatively. At 1 month it was re Results: duced to 3.72 ±0.67, at 3 months 3.43± 0.88 and at 6 months 3.543±0.98. The results were statistically significant as p value is <0.05. Mean ODI score was 41.5 ±8.82preoperatively. At 1 month it was reduced to 25.82 ±7.67, at 3 months 17.87± 5.88 and at 6 months 12.89±7.98. only 3(5%) patients required surgical management, rest 57(95%) were relieved. Selective Nerve Root Block is a reliable option for acute pain managemen Conclusions: t in patients with lumbar disc prolapse and radiculopathy. It results in significant improvement in pain and disability and helps in delaying the surgery in patients without neural 19 deficits .