Role of Steroids and 10% Hypertonic Sodium Chloride in Adhesiolysis in Post Lumbar Surgery Syndrome Patients

Recruitment is indicated in patients with chronic low back pain and lower extremity pain secondary to post lumbar laminectomy syndrome, non-responsive to conservative therapy with physical therapy, chiropractic, medical therapy, and fluoroscopically directed epidural injections.

This is a single-center, prospective, randomized, double-blind, equivalence, controlled trial performed in an interventional pain management referral center in the United States.

The study involves 240 patients studied in 4 groups with 60 patients in each group. Randomization includes sequence generation, allocation concealment, implementation, and blinding.

Data management analysis includes sample size justification of 40 patients in each group with a power of 80% and a 0.05% 2-sided significance level. Statistical methodology includes chi-squared statistics, Fisher's exact test, t-test, and paired t-test with significance evaluated at P value < 0.05.

Inclusion criteria

Inclusion criteria

• History of lumbar surgery of at least 6 months duration in the past
• Patients over the age of 18 years
• Patients with a history of chronic function-limiting low back pain with or without lower extremity pain of at least 6 months duration (post-surgery)
• Patients who are competent to understand the study protocol and provide voluntary, written informed consent and participate in outcome measurements.

Exclusion criteria

• Facet joints, uncontrollable as sole pain generators
• Unstable or heavy opioid use (400 mg of morphine equivalents daily)
• Uncontrolled psychiatric disorders
• Uncontrolled medical illness
• Any conditions that could interfere with the interpretation of the outcome assessments
• Pregnant or lactating women
• Patients with a history or potential for adverse reaction(s) to local anesthetic, steroids, or hypertonic sodium chloride solution.