Follow-up status of patients treated with nerve blocks for low-back pain.

One hundred fifty-one (151) outpatients treated with epidural or subarachnoid blocks for low-back pain not due to malignancy were questioned by mail one to two years after treatment to assess their current functional status as compared with that at the time of treatment. The results emphasize the importance of bothe gender-associated differences in life functioning and the circumstances of pain onset, while supporting the proposition that nerve-block treatment of low-back pain is useful, particularly so since the majority were cases of chronic pain. The findings also emphasize the complexity of factors in the total treatment situation, the operation of psychologic, social and economic forces in determining the outcome of treatment, and the need for detailed criteria in studies evaluating treatment effects. (Key words: Pain, low-back; Anesthetic techniques, therapeutic; Anesthetic techniques, spinal; Anesthetics techniques, peridural.)