The role of epiduroscopy in diagnosis and treatment of back and leg pain

硬膜外镜检查是治疗慢性腰痛的一项新技术。尽管许多研究者指出了不同患者硬膜外镜的临床效果存在差异，但只有少数研究证实了硬膜外镜的益处。此外，硬膜外镜检查的效果或理论基础尚未得到充分的研究。在这项研究中，我们比较了椎间盘突出、退行性腰椎管狭窄或背部手术后严重腰痛的不明确组患者在相同的硬膜外镜检查后的表现、影像学表现、临床症状和症状变化。研究结果提示，硬膜镜检查结果的多样性和基于症状的功能分类可能与硬膜镜检查减轻疼痛效果的差异有关，术前影像学检查结果可能并不总是与硬膜镜检查的临床效果相关。

Epiduroscopy is a new technique for treatment of chronic low back pain. Although many investigators have pointed out the differences in the clinical effects of epiduroscopy from patient to patient, only a few studies have been conducted to establish the benefits of epiduroscopy. Moreover, the effects or theoretical basis of epiduroscopy has not been thoroughly investigated. In this study, we compared the epiduroscopic findings, the radiological findings, the clinical symptoms and the changes in symptoms after identical procedure of epiduroscopy between ill-defined groups of patients with herniated disks, degenerative lumbar spinal stenosis, or severe low back pain after back surgery. The results of the study suggest that the varieties of the epiduroscopic findings and the symptom-based functional classification may be related to the differences in the effects of epiduroscopy on the pain reduction, and that the preoperative radiographic findings may not always correlate with the clinical effects of epiduroscopy.