This common type of low back pain is often the result of injury or pressure on the sciatic nerve. Epidural steroid treatments — the type involved with the current fungal meningitis outbreak — are a common treatment, but consistent guidelines for their use are nonexistent.
In the recent study, researchers analyzed 23 clinical trials of 3,100 patients and compared steroid injections to other treatments. The injections only gave small, short-term relief in pain and disability to people with sciatica. They had no long-term effects. The longer the patient had the pain, the less responsive treatment tends to be for all therapies.
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