Skip to content

Does the Presence of Cervical Facet Tropism Affect the Response to Interlaminar Epidural Steroid Injections?

Does the Presence of Cervical Facet Tropism Affect the Response to Interlaminar Epidural Steroid Injections? A Prospective Clinical Study

Status
UNKNOWN
Phases
Unknown
Study type
Observational
Source
ClinicalTrials.gov
Registry ID
NCT05638074
Enrollment
90
Registered
2022-12-06
Start date
2022-11-28
Completion date
2023-08-30
Last updated
2022-12-06

For informational purposes only — not medical advice. Sourced from public registries and may not reflect the latest updates. Terms

Conditions

Cervical Disc Herniation, Cervical Radicular Pain, Facet Tropism

Keywords

facet tropism, cervical disc herniation, Cervical Radicular Pain

Brief summary

Facet joints are synovial joints located on the dorsolateral side of the vertebral column. Normally, both facet joints are symmetrical. Facet tropism (FT) is defined as asymmetry between the angles of orientation of the joints, in which a facet joint in the same segment is more sagittally oriented than the other. In 1967, Farfan and Sullivan first reported that FT is a possible risk factor for the development of disk herniation. However, this is controversial as there are other views advocating that FT is not a risk factor for the development of cervical disc herniation. Further, it has been emphasized that patients with FT have a greater need for adjacent segment degeneration and new spinal surgery after spinal fusion surgeries than those without FT. In the current literature, studies have been conducted to examine the clinical and radiological parameters that may be related to the effectiveness of cervical interlaminar epidural steroid injections (ILESI). The aim of this study was to examine the effect of the presence of FT on ILESI results in patients with cervical disc herniation-induced radicular pain.

Interventions

The patient will be placed in the prone position and cutaneous anesthesia is performed with 3 mL of 2% prilocaine using the sterile technique. After imaging the C7-T1 space with fluoroscopy, it will be entered from the right/left paramedian part of the C7-T1 space with an 18G Touhy needle, and the C-arm will be set in the contralateral oblique position for depth determination. Under intermittent fluoroscopic imaging, the needle will be advanced, and access to the epidural space wiil be confirmed by the loss of resistance technique. Afterwards, the epidural spread will be controlled with a contrast agent, and a mixture of 10 mg dexamethasone, 1 mL 2% lidocaine hydrochloride, and 1 mL 0.9% saline will be applied to the epidural space. The patient will be discharged with recommendations after being kept under observation for 2 hours post-procedure. All injections will be performed by the same pain medicine specialist who has at least 5 years of experience.

Sponsors

Janbubi Jandaulyet
Lead SponsorOTHER

Study design

Observational model
CASE_CONTROL
Time perspective
PROSPECTIVE

Eligibility

Sex/Gender
ALL
Age
18 Years to 65 Years
Healthy volunteers
No

Inclusion criteria

aged 18-75 years, who applied to the pain medicine outpatient clinic, had axial neck and unilateral radicular extremity pain for at least 3 months, and were diagnosed with protruded disc herniation by magnetic resonance imaging were included in the study

Exclusion criteria

Patients with systemic inflammatory disease, bleeding diathesis,history of psychiatric illness, malignancy, contrast material or local anesthetic agent allergy, cervical spinal stenosis, history of cervical ESI, or neck surgery in the last 3 months were excluded from the study

Design outcomes

Primary

MeasureTime frameDescription
NRS scoreat first hour, at three weeks, at 3 months≥50% reduction in the NRS scores at month 3 relative to the initial NRS scores.

Countries

Turkey (Türkiye)

Contacts

Primary Contactjanbubi jandaulyet, residency
janbubi.jandaulyet@marmara.edu.tr+905076755161
Backup Contactsavas sencan, Assosiate Professor

Outcome results

None listed

Source: ClinicalTrials.gov · Data processed: Feb 4, 2026