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

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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.