Six-month data from a randomized controlled study for the Medicare Coverage with Evidence Development program appear to show a percutaneous decompression procedure is beneficial for people with neurogenic claudication due to lumbar stenosis, as reported by Pain Management News.
Peter Staats, MD, president of the American Society of Interventional Pain Physicians and partner of Premier Pain Centers in Shrewsbury, N.J., and lead study author, and colleagues conducted the study at 26 interventional pain management centers in the United States. The patients were all Medicare beneficiaries. About 149 of the patients were randomly assigned to MILD Decompression Alternative to Open Surgery procedures and 153 to one or more sets of interlaminar epidural steroid injections. All the patients had previously received physical therapy and undergone a home exercise program, and some had used walking aids and chiropractic adjustment.
Here are five points:
1. At six months, the use of medications for neurogenic claudication had dropped slightly from 90.6 percent to 89.5 percent in the MILD group.
2. At six months, the use of medications for neurogenic claudication had risen significantly from 83 percent to 85.3 percent in the ESI patients.
3. Researchers found the MILD group produced superior results in all the secondary outcome measures.
4. There were no differences in medication for neurogenic claudication at six-month follow-up.
5. There was also found to be no significant difference in the proportions of device- or procedure-related adverse events.