Epidural steroid injections are not effective for patients with lumbar spinal stenosis.

Context Degenerative lumbar spinal stenosis is a common cause of low back and leg pain in older individuals. The evidence supporting non-surgical treatments, including oral medications, physical treatments and spinal injections, is limited. Despite the lack of strong evidence supporting the use of epidural steroid injections (ESIs) for lumbar spinal stenosis, their use has increased dramatically since 2000. This multicentre, randomised trial compared the effectiveness of ESIs with lidocaine to epidural injections of lidocaine alone.