Beneficial effects of information leaflets before spinal steroid injection

How beneficial is the provision of information leaflets to low back pain patients before steroid injection under fluoroscopy?

To compare the value of information leaflets with verbal information on steroid injection under fluoroscopy.

Alternate month design. One hundred and twenty-three low back pain patients hospitalized for steroid injection under fluoroscopy were enrolled in the trial. Fifty-two patients received both written standardized information and non-standardized verbal information (intervention group), seventy one patients received only non-standardized verbal information (control group). Anxiety assessed at baseline evaluation and just before the injection; satisfaction related to the information received assessed on discharge day; knowledge about steroid injection assessed 4 hours and 1 month after the injection.

Patients had a high anxiety level at baseline evaluation. Written standardized information did not decrease significantly anxiety (P = 0.068) before the injection, had no effect on pain during the injection, but increased patients' knowledge about the adverse effects on the day of injection and 1 month later (P = 0.040 and P = 0.084 respectively), and improve satisfaction with information received about potential complications of the steroid injections (P = 0.018).

Providing an information leaflet to low back pain patents undergoing steroid injection under fluoroscopy tends to reduce state anxiety, and increases patients' knowledge and satisfaction with information about the risks of the injection.