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NEUROLOGY 1986;36:1593
© 1986 American Academy of Neurology

Dexamethasone is not superior to placebo for treating lumbosacral radicular pain

Itzhak C. Haimovic, MD and H. Richard Beresford, MD

Department of Neurology, North Shore University Hospital, Manhasset, NY, and Cornell University Medical College, New York, NY.

In a prospective double-blind study, we compared dexamethasone and placebo in 33 subjects with lumbosacral radicular pain. Of subjects with resting pain, 7/21 improved on dexamethasone, and 4/12 improved on placebo. Of subjects with pain on straight-leg raising, 8/19 improved on dexamethasone and 1/6 on placebo. Of 27 subjects evaluated 1 to 4 years after treatment, 8/16 who had received dexamethasone were asymptomatic or had only occasional mild low-back pain, compared with 7/11 who had received placebo. Thus, dexamethasone is not superior to placebo for either early or long-term relief of lumbosacral radicular pain, but may reduce pain evoked by stretch of acutely inflamed spinal nerve roots.

Address correspondence and reprint requests to Dr. Haimovic, Neurology Department, North Shore University Hospital. Manhasset, NY 10030.

Presented in part at the thirty-seventh annual meeting of the American Academy of Neurology, Dallas, TX, May 1985.

Accepted for publication March 26, 1986.




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