Ultrasound-guided versus computed tomography-controlled periradicular injections of the first sacral nerve: a prospective randomized clinical trial.

AIM To compare ultrasound (US)-guided versus computed tomography (CT)-controlled periradicular injections of the first sacral spinal (S1) nerve in a prospective randomized clinical trial. MATERIALS AND METHODS Thirty-nine patients with S1-radiculopathy were consecutively enrolled for 40 periradicular injections and assigned to an US or CT guided group. Needle position after US-assisted placement was controlled by a low-dose CT-scan. Accessibility, accuracy, and intervention time were compared. The overall effect on pain was matched evaluating the visual analog scale (VAS) decrease before and one month after the intervention. RESULTS The mean intervention time was lower in the US-group compared to the CT-group: 4.4±3.46 min (1.3-13.2) vs. 6.5±3.03 min (2.4-12.5). Using CT-controlled infiltration the mean number of needle passes was with 1.15 higher than utilizing US-guidance. The therapeutic effect (mean difference between pre- and post-intervention, VAS scores) for the CT-group was 4.85±2.52 and for the US-group 4.55±2.74 with no significant difference between the two groups (p=0.7). CONCLUSION US-controlled infiltrations of the first sacral nerve show a similar therapeutic effect to the time consuming, and ionizing CT-controlled injections and result in a significant reduction of procedure expenditure and avoidance of radiation.