SynthesisInternational orthopaedics2016
Comparison of transforaminal verse interlaminar epidural steroid injection in low back pain with lumbosacral radicular pain: a meta-analysis of the literature.
Synthesis in International orthopaedics, 2016. The graph could read no effect estimate from its abstract, so it casts no vote on the map. Cited by 11 papers, 5 of them syntheses that pooled it.
What it found
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The abstract states no effect estimate the extractor could read, or names no intervention and outcome on the map, so this paper lights no cell and moves no belief. It is still indexed, cited and linked below.
The trial behind it
Trials whose registry record cites this paper, or whose number appears in the abstract. A trial that started after this paper was published is citing it as background, not reporting it.
Neither the registry nor the abstract names a trial number. If this is a trial report, that itself is worth knowing.
Who cites it
11 citing papers in PubMed, 5 syntheses or guidelines pooled it, 21 citations in OpenAlex.
- Effectiveness of epidural steroid injections for low back pain in older adults: a systematic review.Aging clinical and experimental research · 2026Pooled it
- Effectiveness of epidural steroid injections in the treatment of lumbar radiculopathy: a systematic review and meta-analysis.Frontiers in pain research (Lausanne, Switzerland) · 2026Pooled it
- Intra-articular steroid injections for lumbar disk herniation: a systematic review and meta-analysis.Acta neurochirurgica · 2025Pooled it
- Pooled it
- Fusion in situ versus reduction for spondylolisthesis treatment: grading the evidence through a meta-analysis.Bioscience reports · 2020Pooled it
- Microdiscectomy compared with transforaminal epidural steroid injection for persistent radicular pain caused by prolapsed intervertebral disc: the NERVES RCT.Health technology assessment (Winchester, England) · 2021Trial
- The association between patient- and procedure-related factors and patient-reported intraprocedural pain during fluoroscopically guided lumbar epidural injections: A real-world cohort study.Interventional pain medicine · 2026Article
- Article
- Comparing the clinical outcomes of lumbar transforaminal vs interlaminar epidural steroid injections in a registry cohort.Interventional pain medicine · 2024Article
- Deep Learning-Based Automatic Segmentation of Lumbosacral Nerves on CT for Spinal Intervention: A Translational Study.AJNR. American journal of neuroradiology · 2019Article
- The effects of conjugated linoleic acids on breast cancer: A systematic review.Advanced biomedical research · 2016Review
Corrections and comments
PubMed lists nothing against this paper. Absence here is not a guarantee, only a check that was made.
Authors and funding
7 authors at 1 institution in 1 country.
Funding
No grant is acknowledged in the PubMed record.
Abstract
objectiveThe object of the present meta-analysis is to compare the effectiveness of transforaminal epidural steroid injection (TFESI) and interlaminar epidural steroid injection (ILESI) for treating patients with low back pain (LBP) secondary to lumbosacral radicular pain.
methodsA systematic search was performed in the PubMed and Embase databases and the Cochrane Library for relevant literature published through January 2016. The randomized controlled trials (RCTs) and controlled observational studies were selected, which did not only compare TFESI with ILESI but also reported the available data. The Cochrane Collaboration's Handbook and Newcastle-Ottawa Scale (NOS) were used for the methodological quality assessments of the RCTs and observational studies respectively. The meta-analysis was performed using the Revman 5.2 software.
resultsA total of 931 patients from nine RCTs and four observational studies were subjected to meta-analysis. In primary outcomes, the TFESI patients experienced superior pain relief compared with the TFESI patients in RCTs (P = 0.01), but not in observational studies (p = 0.63). The pooled data of RCTs showed that the TFESI group presented superior clinical results in terms of visual analogue scale (VAS) than the ILESI group (p = 0.0005). Moreover, the numeric rating scale (NRS) specifically favored TFESI in the RCTs (p < 0000.1). Similar functional improvement and oswentry disability index (ODI) score were observed between TFESI and ILESI in RCTs (P = 0.62). In secondary outcomes, meta-analysis of RCTs and observational studies revealed that there were no statistically significant differences between both groups in regard to procedure frequency, surgery rate, and ventral epidural spread.
conclusionsAccording to the results of meta-analysis, TFESI to manage LBP provides superior short term pain relief and equal functional improvement when compared to ILESI. It has not shown a statistically significant difference between both groups with regard to procedure frequency, surgery rate, and ventral epidural spread.
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Registered trials
Read under generation 80e0d062 · epoch 390. Bibliography from PubMed, PubMed Central and OpenAlex; grants from NIH RePORTER; trial links from ClinicalTrials.gov; estimates, votes and beliefs from the OpenQuestion graph.