RESUMO
Chronic back pain is a common and frequent clinical presentation in any population. Presence of disc disease, facet syndrome, and vertebral body disease are usually addressed by the radiologists. Facet joints are proven to be the culprit in 15 – 45 % of patients with low back pain. We wanted to compare effectiveness of fluoroscopy and computed tomography guided lumbar facet injections for pain relief in patients with facet arthropathies and mild canal stenoses. METHODSThis is a retrospective cross-sectional study performed in the Department of Radiology at our Hospital in Dhahran. This record-based study was performed in our department from Jan. 2015 - 2020. All patients (N = 112) who underwent fluoroscopy and computed tomography (CT) guided facet injections (either alone or with epidural injections) for relief of chronic back pains (due to facet arthropathies and mild canal stenoses) were included, and grouped as (i) facet injections under fluoroscopy (F), and (ii) facet injections under CT guidance (C). Patients with acute disc prolapse, trauma to spine, lumbar surgeries, moderate to severe lumbar stenoses, spondylolisthesis, known systemic arthritides, those not suitable for the procedures, and those lost to follow-up were excluded. Repeat procedure within one year for recurrent complaints was used as a measure of effectiveness of the procedure. Proportional Z-test was used, and a p-value less than 0.05 was considered to be significant. RESULTSOut of a total of 112 patients, 64 were females (57 %) and 48 were males (43 %). The mean age was 56.4. Twenty out of 78 patients with facet injections under fluoroscopy and 3 out of 34 patients with facet injections under CT underwent repeat procedures (P = 0.042). CONCLUSIONSCT guided facet injections combined with epidural injections may be more effective in relief of lower back pain in patients with facet arthropathies and mild canal stenoses