Document Type
Article
Publication Date
6-1-2023
Abstract
STUDY DESIGN: Retrospective cohort study.
OBJECTIVE: The objective of this study is to determine how often patients with degenerative cervical myelopathy (DCM) and initially treated with cervical steroid injections (CSI) and to determine whether these injections provide any benefit in delaying ultimate surgical treatment.
METHODS: All patients with a new diagnosis of DCM, without previous cervical spine surgery or steroid injections, were identified in PearlDiver, a large insurance database. Steroid injection and surgery timing was identified using Current Procedural Terminology (CPT) codes. Multivariate logistic regression identified associations with surgical treatment.
RESULTS: A total of 686 patients with DCM were identified. Pre-surgical cervical spine steroid injections were utilized in 244 patients (35.6%). All patients underwent eventual surgical treatment. Median time from initial DCM diagnosis to surgery was 75.5 days (mean 351.6 days; standard deviation 544.9 days). Cervical steroid injections were associated with higher odds of surgery within 1 year (compared to patients without injections, OR = 1.44,
CONCLUSIONS: While cervical steroid injections continue to be commonly performed in patients with DCM, there is an overall increased odds of surgery after any type of cervical injection. Therefore injections should not be used to prevent surgical management of DCM.
Recommended Citation
Manzur, Mustfa K.; Samuel, Andre M; Vaishnav, Avani; Gang, Catherine Himo; Sheha, Evan D; and Qureshi, Sheeraz A, "Cervical Steroid Injections Are Not Effective for Prevention of Surgical Treatment of Degenerative Cervical Myelopathy." (2023). Student Papers, Posters & Projects. Paper 106.
https://jdc.jefferson.edu/student_papers/106
Creative Commons License
This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-Noncommercial-No Derivative Works 4.0 License.
Language
English
Comments
This article is the author's final published version in Global Spine Journal, Volume 13, Issue 5, June 2023, Pages 1237 - 1242.
The published version is available at https://doi.org/10.1177/21925682211024573.
Copyright © The Author(s)
Creative Commons Non Commercial No Derivs CC BY-NC-ND: This article is distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution-Non Commercial-NoDerivs 4.0 License (https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc-nd/4.0/) which permits non-commercial use, reproduction and distribution of the work as published without adaptation or alteration, without further permission provided the original work is attributed as specified on the SAGE and Open Access pages (https://us.sagepub.com/en-us/nam/open-access-at-sage).