ReviewFrontiers in pharmacology2018
Do Corticosteroids Still Have a Place in the Treatment of Chronic Pain?
Review in Frontiers in pharmacology, 2018. The graph could read no effect estimate from its abstract, so it casts no vote on the map. Cited by 18 papers, 5 of them syntheses that pooled it.
What it found
Each row is one number read from the abstract, on the scale the paper reported it, with its interval. Left of the dashed line favours the treatment, right favours the comparator. Under each row is the sentence it came from. New to these charts? A ten-minute tutorial.
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
18 citing papers in PubMed, 5 syntheses or guidelines pooled it, 38 citations in OpenAlex.
- Effectiveness and safety of ultrasound-guided needle-knife therapy for patients with spinal pain disorders: a systematic review and meta-analysis.Frontiers in medicine · 2025Pooled it
- Is platelet-rich plasma better than steroids as epidural drug of choice in lumbar disc disease with radiculopathy? Meta-analysis of randomized controlled trials.Experimental biology and medicine (Maywood, N.J.) · 2025Pooled it
- Corticosteroid injection or dry needling for musculoskeletal pain and disability? A systematic review and GRADE evidence synthesis.Chiropractic & manual therapies · 2021Pooled it
- Epidural steroid compared to placebo injection in sciatica: a systematic review and meta-analysis.European spine journal : official publication of the European Spine Society, the European Spinal Deformity Society, and the European Section of the Cervical Spine Research Society · 2021Pooled it
- Parasagittal Approach of Epidural Steroid Injection as a Treatment for Chronic Low Back Pain: A Systematic Review and Meta-Analysis.Frontiers in pain research (Lausanne, Switzerland) · 2021Pooled it
- "Platelet-Rich Plasma" epidural injection an emerging strategy in lumbar disc herniation: a Randomized Controlled Trial.BMC musculoskeletal disorders · 2023Trial
- Effectiveness of Epidural Steroid Injection Depending on Discoradicular Contact: A Prospective Randomized Trial.International journal of environmental research and public health · 2023Trial
- Oral Corticosteroid Therapy in Lumbar Radiculopathy: Evidence From Randomized Controlled Trials.Cureus · 2026Review
- Pivotal Factors for Minimizing the Risks of Therapeutic Failure in Trigeminal Neuralgia and Hemifacial Spasm.Current pain and headache reports · 2026Review
- Multi-Patient Analysis of Steroid-Induced Hyperglycemia in Diabetic Patients Using Continuous Glucose Monitoring.Journal of pain research · 2026Article
- Advanced nanoparticles for osteoarthritis: a review.Frontiers in medicine · 2025Review
- Low-Dose Ozone as a Eustress Inducer: Experimental Evidence of the Molecular Mechanisms Accounting for Its Therapeutic Action.International journal of molecular sciences · 2024Review
- Effectiveness of Pulse Intravenous Infusion of Methylprednisolone on Pain in Patients with Lumbar Disc Herniation: A Randomized Controlled Trial.Anesthesiology and pain medicine · 2024Article
- Progress in regulating inflammatory biomaterials for intervertebral disc regeneration.Bioactive materials · 2024Review
- Pharmacogenetic landscape of pain management variants among Mediterranean populations.Frontiers in pharmacology · 2024Article
- Monocytes and Macrophages in Spondyloarthritis: Functional Roles and Effects of Current Therapies.Cells · 2022Review
- Comparison of Pulsed Radiofrequency, Oxygen-Ozone Therapy and Epidural Steroid Injections for the Treatment of Chronic Unilateral Radicular Syndrome.Medicina (Kaunas, Lithuania) · 2021Article
- A comparison between acupotomy vs the local steroid injection for the management of soft tissue disorder: A systematic review protocol.Medicine · 2019Article
Corrections and comments
PubMed lists nothing against this paper. Absence here is not a guarantee, only a check that was made.
Authors and funding
4 authors at 1 institution in 1 country.
Funding
No grant is acknowledged in the PubMed record.
Abstract
Corticosteroids have played a standard role in the multimodal pain management in the treatment of chronic spinal pain (cervical and lumbar) and osteoarthritis pain over the past three decades. In this review we discuss different types of injectable steroids that are mainly used for injection into the epidural space (for the treatment of radicular back and neck pain), and as intra-articular injections for different types of osteoarthritis related pain conditions. Furthermore, we discuss different approaches taken for epidural corticosteroid injections and spinal surgical rates when injections fail to resolve painful conditions, as well as the possibility of using local anesthetics alone for neuraxial injections, instead of in combination with corticosteroids. While we present some beneficial effects of newly available treatment options for low back pain and osteoarthritis pain, such as use of PRP and hyaluronic acid, corticosteroids remain important considerations in the management of these chronic pain conditions.
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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.