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Statin-Associated Myopathy Mimicking Lumbar Radiculopathy: A Case Series
Ruben Dovlatyan1, Blake Jones2, Bruno Alonso3
1Rusk Rehabilitation at NYU Langone Health, New York, NY.
Background:
Chronic low back pain (cLBP) is often managed conservatively, but it is vital to rule out certain causes before pursuing targeted treatment. A thorough evaluation, including medication reconciliation, ensures appropriate care and may prevent costly or invasive treatments for many ubiquitous conditions, including patients taking statin medications.
Case Report:
We present a series of 3 cases in which patients on statin medication presented to a pain management clinic with symptoms initially resembling mechanical and/or radicular chronic LBP (cLBP). In all 3 cases, medication reconciliation revealed high-dose statin medication, and supervised dose reduction or discontinuation was temporally linked with the alleviation of symptoms.
Conclusion:
This is the first known case series reporting suspected statin-associated muscle symptoms that mimic lumbar radiculopathy. These cases underscore the importance of comprehensive clinical evaluation, including medication reconciliation. Clinicians should consider medication-related side effects in the differential diagnosis of new or atypical musculoskeletal pain.
