Background: Sacroiliac joint (SIJ) pain is a common etiology of chronic lower back pain. Treatment of persistent sacroiliac joint pain may entail intraarticular steroid injections and lateral branch radiofrequency neurotomy.
Objectives: This study evaluates the efficacy of SIJ intervention treatments by comparing intraarticular steroid injections with lateral branch radiofrequency neurotomy.
Study design: Retrospective cohort study.
Setting: We reviewed electronic medical records of patients with SIJ pain at Massachusetts General Hospital from 2006 through 2016 and identified 354 patients who received 930 SIJ intraarticular injections and 19 patients who received 41 SIJ lateral branch radiofrequency neurotomies.
Methods: The Numeric Rating Scale (NRS) score for pain and the Eastern Cooperative Oncology Group (ECOG) Performance Status were measured prior to intervention and on follow-up. A mixed effects model was used to evaluate the duration of treatment effect.
Results: Patients who received an SIJ intraarticular steroid injection reported lower pain scores following treatment with a mean (standard deviation) NRS reduction from 6.77 (2.25) to 2.72 (2.81). SIJ lateral branch radiofrequency neurotomy resulted in NRS reduction from 5.96 (2.39) to 3.54 (3.14). A linear mixed model analysis suggests SIJ intraarticular steroid injections provided an estimated mean (CI 95%) of 38 (30-46.3) days of pain relief. Lateral branch radiofrequency neurotomy provided 82 (39.4-124.8) days of pain relief. The mean preprocedure ECOG score was 1.22 for both interventions and trended toward improvement with a post SIJ intraarticular injection score of 1.05 and SIJ lateral branch radiofrequency neurotomy score of 1.03.
Limitations: There was variable follow-up reporting among patients. The small size of the lateral branch radiofrequency cohort limited intergroup comparisons.
Conclusion: Both SIJ intraarticular steroid injections and SIJ lateral branch radiofrequency neurotomy demonstrated significant pain relief for patients with SIJ pain. SIJ lateral branch radiofrequency neurotomy provided a longer duration of pain relief (82 days) versus SIJ intraarticular steroid injection (38 days).
Keywords: lateral branch radiofrequency neurotomy; sacroiliac intraarticular steroid injection; Sacroiliac joint pain.