Skip to main page content
U.S. flag

An official website of the United States government

Dot gov

The .gov means it’s official.
Federal government websites often end in .gov or .mil. Before sharing sensitive information, make sure you’re on a federal government site.

Https

The site is secure.
The https:// ensures that you are connecting to the official website and that any information you provide is encrypted and transmitted securely.

Access keys NCBI Homepage MyNCBI Homepage Main Content Main Navigation
. 2022 Apr 1;22(3):526-532.
doi: 10.1515/sjpain-2021-0160. Print 2022 Jul 26.

Correlation between the degree of pain relief following discoblock and short-term surgical disability outcome among patients with suspected discogenic low back pain

Tero Korhonen  1   2   3 , Juha Pesälä  3 , Jyri Järvinen  1   3   4 , Marianne Haapea  4 , Jaakko Niinimäki  1   3   4
Affiliations
Free article

Correlation between the degree of pain relief following discoblock and short-term surgical disability outcome among patients with suspected discogenic low back pain

Tero Korhonen et al. Scand J Pain. .
Free article

Abstract

Objectives: To evaluate how well the degree of pain relief after discoblock predicts the disability outcome of subsequent fusion or total disc replacement (TDR) surgery, based on short-term Oswestry Disability Index (ODI) scores.

Methods: We retrospectively analyzed a set of patients who had undergone discoblock and subsequent fusion or TDR surgery of the same lumbar intervertebral disc due to suspected discogenic chronic LBP between 2011 and 2018. We calculated the degree of pain relief following discoblock (ΔNRS) and the changes in both absolute and percentual ODI scores (ΔODI and ΔODI%, respectively) following fusion or TDR surgery. We analyzed the statistical significance of ΔNRS and ΔODI and the correlation (Spearman's rho) between ΔNRS and ΔODI%. The fusion and TDR group were analyzed both in combination and separately.

Results: Fifteen patients were eligible for the current study (fusion n=9, TDR n=6). ΔNRS was statistically significant in all groups, and ΔODI was statistically significant in the combined group and in the fusion group alone. The parameters of both decreased. We found a Spearman's rho of 0.57 (p=0.026) between ΔNRS and ΔODI% for the combined group. The individual Spearman's rho values were 0.85 (p=0.004) for the fusion group and 0.62 (p=0.191) for the TDR group.

Conclusions: We suggest that discoblock is a useful predictive criterion for disability outcome prior to surgery for discogenic LBP, especially when stabilizing spine surgery is under consideration.

Ethical committee number: 174/2019 (Oulu University Hospital Ethics Committee).

Keywords: chronic low back pain (LBP); diagnostic tests; intervertebral disc degeneration (IVD); spinal fusion; total disc replacement (TDR).

PubMed Disclaimer

References

    1. Hoy, D, Bain, C, Williams, G, March, L, Brooks, P, Blyth, F, et al.. A systematic review of the global prevalence of low back pain. Arthritis Rheum 2012;64:2028–37. https://doi.org/10.1002/art.34347 . - DOI - PubMed
    1. Fujii, K, Yamazaki, M, Kang, JD, Risbud, MV, Cho, SK, Qureshi, SA, et al.. Discogenic back pain: literature review of definition, diagnosis, and treatment. JBMR Plus 2019;3:e10180. https://doi.org/10.1002/jbm4.10180 . - DOI - PubMed - PMC
    1. Hancock, MJ, Maher, CG, Latimer, J, Spindler, MF, McAuley, JH, Laslett, M, et al.. Systematic review of tests to identify the disc, SIJ or facet joint as the source of low back pain. Eur Spine J 2007;16:1539–50. https://doi.org/10.1007/s00586-007-0391-1 . - DOI - PubMed - PMC
    1. Carragee, EJ, Alamin, TF. Discography. a review. Spine J 2001;1:364–72. https://doi.org/10.1016/s1529-9430(01)00051-1 . - DOI - PubMed
    1. Manchikanti, L, Glaser, SE, Wolfer, L, Derby, R, Cohen, SP. Systematic review of lumbar discography as a diagnostic test for chronic low back pain. Pain Physician 2009;12:541–59. https://doi.org/10.36076/ppj.2009/12/541 . - DOI

LinkOut - more resources