A Study on the Effectiveness of Musculoskeletal Corticosteroid Injections for Reducing Patient Symptom Scores in Primary Care Practice.

Objectives: To present data on the effectiveness of corticosteroid injections (CSI) in reducing symptom scores for musculoskeletal conditions in patients treated in an NHS primary care CSI service. The data will also examine whether adding local anaesthetic to the corticosteroid preparation affects the overall patient outcomes in symptom scores.

Methods: A Patient-reported outcomes (PRO) questionnaire was used to collect data. Patients were asked to complete the questionnaire post-CSI. Patients were asked to rate their symptoms on a score of 0-6 before and after their injection. Data were calculated using standard deviation and paired t-test to assess the effectiveness of CSI in reducing symptom scores.

Results: Overall, 172 patients (79.6%) reported an improvement in symptomatology post CSI. Improvements were seen across all injection sites. Of those taking medication for their symptoms, 73 patients (55.7%) reported that they were able to reduce their medication. Data did not suggest that adding local anaesthetic to the injectate resulted in better patient outcomes. Post-injection symptom scores were statistically similar across all clinicians.

Conclusion: 83.7% of patients experienced a reduction in symptom scores post injection. Adding lidocaine to the injectate preparation did not result in any statistically significant improvement in patient outcome. Over half of the participants were able to reduce their medication post injection, which demonstrates this is a highly effective primary care service for treatment/management of some MSK conditions.