Heterogeneity Among Hospitals in the Percentages of All Lumbosacral Epidural Steroid Injections Where the Patient Had Received 4 or More in the Previous Year.

CONCLUSIONS: Although most patients received only 1 lumbosacral steroid injection within 1 year, 1.27% of patients received 5 or more, and 1.91% of injections were the fifth or greater. Several hospitals had significantly greater than the overall average percent of steroid injections which were fifth or more. This heterogeneity warrants study of whether annual steroid injections per patient should be a clinical quality measure for the care received by patients with lower back pain or whether payment should be greater when injections are in accordance with guidelines. PMID: 31166229 [PubMed - as supplied by publisher]
Source: Anesthesia and Analgesia - Category: Anesthesiology Authors: Tags: Anesth Analg Source Type: research