Influence of prior lumbosacral surgery on the incidence of intravascular injection during transforaminal epidural injections [Transforaminal Epidural Enjeksiyonlar Sırasında Gelişen İntravasküler Enjeksiyon İnsidansına Önceden Yapılmış Olan Lumbosakral Cerrahi Girişimlerin Etkisi]

Objective: percutaneous lumbar transforaminal epidural steroid injections are frequently used to treat low back pain. however,many reports have indicated that this procedure has a high risk of morbidity. the aim of this study was to determine the difference in the incidence of vascular penetration during lumbosacral transforaminal epidural injections between patients with previous lumbar spinal surgery and patients who did not undergo surgery. design: this is a prospective clinical study. methods: in this study,patients who received lumbar transforaminal epidural injections at an outpatient spine center were included and followed. an interventional spine physician observed fluoroscopically guided lumbosacral transforaminal epidural steroid injections under live fluoroscopy and recorded contrast patterns. a total of 296 fluoroscopically guided lumbosacral transforaminal epidural steroid injections under live fluoroscopy in 108 patients were evaluated. results: the incidence of vascular contrast patterns was observed under live fluoroscopy. vascular injections were observed in 28 of the 296 injections,for an overall incidence of 9.5%. the incidence of intravascular injections among patients was 40.0% (20/50) in the previously operated group and 13.8% (8/58) in the non-operated group. this difference was statistically significant (p<0.001). a secondary analysis was performed to determine if the other factors affected the success of the procedure or increased the incidence of vascular injections. conclusion: our results indicated that previous surgery affected intravascular dissemination and increased the risk of vascular injection. cohesional area caused by previous surgery complicated the injection. additionally,fluoroscopy count and operation time were also affected by previous surgery. © 2015,ege university press. all rights reserved.