Early assessment of physical capacity and pain is associated with 1-month response following epidural steroid injection in patients with sciatica due to degenerative lumbar disorders
Michal Ziga, Martin N. Stienen, Anna Maria Zeitlberger, Ulf C. Schneider, Luca Regli, Victor Staartjes, Nicolai Maldaner · 2026
Read Early assessment of physical capacity and pain is associated with 1-month response following epidural steroid injection in patients with sciatica due to degenerative lumbar disorders by Michal Ziga, Martin N. Stienen, Anna Maria Zeitlberger, Ulf C. Schneider, Luca Regli, Victor Staartjes, Nicolai Maldaner (2026) in the Tower of Babel, a free online library of public-domain works preserved in clean, searchable text. No sign-up. The full text is served as a plain-text file at a predictable URL, where text is present: https://antarctic-labs.com/tower-of-babel/pmc-13241758.txt.
Description
Michal Ziga and co-authors report a 2026 prospective study of epidural steroid injections for sciatica from worn lumbar discs. Patients often must choose between injections and surgery, yet objective measures of injection benefit are scarce. The team tracked pain and walking capacity with a phone-based test.
Forty-five patients were assessed before injection and at one day, one week, and one month after. Walking distance rose sharply by the first day and then held steady. Pain scores improved along a similar path. Reaching a meaningful improvement within the first week predicted success at one month very reliably. The authors recommend the short walking test as an early, objective check on whether the injection worked.
Catalog record
| CREATOR | Michal Ziga, Martin N. Stienen, Anna Maria Zeitlberger, Ulf C. Schneider, Luca Regli, Victor Staartjes, Nicolai Maldaner |
|---|---|
| YEAR | 2026 |
| COLLECTION | PAPERS |
| FORMAT | TXT |
| FILE SIZE | 31 KB |
| VERSION | 1.0 |
| LICENSE | CC BY 4.0 |
| RIGHTS | CC BY |
| SOURCE | Europe PMC |