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CompletedNCT01238536LESSUpdated Dec 13, 2017Results posted

Lumbar Epidural Steroid Injections for Spinal Stenosis Multicenter Randomized, Controlled Trial (LESS Trial)

A Phase 4 interventional study of Epidural steroid with local anesthetic injection and Epidural local anesthetic injection in Spinal Stenosis and Low Back Pain, sponsored by University of Washington. Completed at 10 sites in United States. Open to participants aged 50 Years and older. Per ClinicalTrials.gov, last updated 2017-12-13.

Sponsored by University of Washington · Phase 4, Interventional, and Treatment

Phase
Phase 4
Study type
Interventional
Enrollment
400
Allocation
Randomized
Ages
50 Years and older
Sex
All
01

Study summary

The broad, long-term objective of this research protocol is to improve the quality of life for patients suffering from lumbar spinal stenosis. This objective will be met by examining the safety and clinical efficacy of epidural steroid injections for treatment of pain associated with lumbar spinal stenosis. This prospective, randomized, double-blind controlled trial (RCT) will test the hypothesis that the effectiveness of epidural steroid injections (ESI) plus local anesthetic (LA) is greater than epidural injections of LA alone in older adults with lumbar spinal stenosis.

Read the detailed description

Lumbar spinal stenosis is one of the most common causes of low back pain in the elderly and can lead to significant disability. The symptoms of spinal stenosis range from low back pain to neurogenic claudication with lower extremity pain, weakness and/or sensory changes related to activities. As spinal stenosis can affect the central canal as well as the lateral recesses and intervertebral foramen variably, symptoms can involve single or multiple myotomes and dermatomes. Since the causes of spinal stenosis are most frequently degenerative changes, the symptoms of spinal stenosis often, but not always, worsen over time. Despite the prevalence of spinal stenosis, treatment of spinal stenosis remains somewhat controversial. Common treatments include conservative measures such as non-steroidal anti-inflammatories (NSAIDS), activity modification and physical therapy as well as more invasive treatments such as epidural steroid injections and surgery. Although surgery has been demonstrated to provide some benefit to many individuals with spinal stenosis, ESI are being used with increasing frequency as a less invasive, potentially more cost effective and safer treatment for spinal stenosis. However, there is a lack of data to demonstrate the effectiveness and safety of epidural steroid injections for spinal stenosis, particularly in the older adults.

Because of the compelling need for effective therapy for patients suffering from spinal stenosis and because epidural steroid injections are rapidly becoming standard of care for treating these patients - even in the absence of compelling clinical evidence - we are conducting a randomized, controlled trial in order to test the hypothesis that lumbar epidural steroid injections improve functional status and pain associated with spinal stenosis. The main objective of the study is to conduct a blinded, randomized controlled trial (RCT) in elderly patients with spinal stenosis to test if the effectiveness of epidural steroid injections (ESI) plus local anesthetic (LA) is greater than LA alone.

02

Conditions studied

  • Spinal Stenosis
  • Low Back Pain

Keywords

  • Epidural Steroid Injection
  • Low Back Pain
  • Spinal Stenosis
  • Elderly
03

In context

Spinal Stenosis

459 studies on the registry are indexed under Spinal Stenosis; 103 are open to participants now.

This study's enrollment of 400 is above the median of 80 across 283 interventional studies indexed under Spinal Stenosis.

Browse Spinal Stenosis studies →

Lead sponsor

University of Washington is the lead sponsor of 1,397 studies on the registry; 225 are open to participants now.

Of its 154 completed or terminated interventional studies of FDA-regulated products, 132 (86%) have results posted.

Counted across the registry records on this site, refreshed daily.

04

Who can participate

Ages eligible
50 Years and older
Sexes eligible
All
Accepts healthy volunteers
No

Inclusion criteria

  1. Pain in the low back, buttock, and/or lower extremity (pain NRS>=5) with standing, walking and/or spinal extension (buttock/leg>back pain).
  2. Modified Roland-Morris score of at least 7.
  3. Mild-severe lumbar central canal spinal stenosis (Boden et al. criteria18) identified by MRI or CT scan.
  4. Lower extremity symptoms consistent with neurogenic claudication.
  5. Must be able to read English and complete the assessment instruments.
  6. Age 50 or older.

Exclusion criteria

Exclusion Criteria:

  1. Cognitive impairment that renders the patient unable to give informed consent or provide accurate data.
  2. Clinical co-morbidities that could interfere with the collection of data concerning pain and function.

    Known dx of fibromyalgia, chronic widespread pain, amputees, parkinsons, head injury, dementia, stroke, other neurologic conditions Collect date about cervical spinal stenosis, painful peripheral neuropathy, EMGs

  3. Severe vascular, pulmonary or coronary artery disease that limits ambulation including recent myocardial infarction (within 6 months).
  4. Spinal instability requiring surgical fusion.
  5. Severe osteoporosis as defined by multiple compression fractures or a fracture at the same level as the stenosis.
  6. Metastatic cancer.
  7. Excessive alcohol consumption or evidence of non-prescribed or illegal drug use.
  8. Possible pregnancy or other reason that precludes the use of fluoroscopy.
  9. Concordant pain with internal rotation of the hip (or known hip joint pathology).
  10. Active local or systemic infection.
  11. Abnormal coagulation.
  12. Allergy to local anesthetic, steroid or contrast.
  13. Previous lumbar spine surgery.
  14. Epidural steroid injection within previous 6 months.
05

Study design

Phase
Phase 4
Primary purpose
Treatment
Allocation
Randomized
Intervention model
Parallel assignment
Masking
Triple (Participant, Investigator, Outcomes assessor)
Enrollment
400 participants (actual)

Study arms

  • Experimental
    Epidural Steroid injection

    Epidural steroid injectate will be 2cc of .25 - 1% lidocaine followed by 1-3 cc of 40 mg/cc Kenalog (i.e. 40-120 mg Kenalog) or an equivalent steroid medication (depo-medrol 60-120 mg, betamethasone 6-12 mg or dexamethasone 8-10 mg) in an opaque syringe. Intervention: Epidural steroid with local anesthetic injection 2cc of .25 - 1% lidocaine and glucocorticoid (Kenalog 40-120 mg, depo-medrol 60-120 mg, betamethasone 6-12 mg or dexamethasone 8-10 mg)

    Procedure: Epidural steroid with local anesthetic injection · Drug: Epidural steroid injection

  • Active comparator
    Epidural local anesthetic injection

    Intervention: Epidural injectate will be 2cc of .25-1% lidocaine followed by 1-3cc of 1% lidocaine in an opaque syringe.

    Procedure: Epidural local anesthetic injection · Drug: Epidural local anesthetic injection

Interventions

  • ProcedureEpidural steroid with local anesthetic injection

    Epidural steroid injectate will be 2cc of 1% lidocaine followed by 1-3 cc of 40 mg/cc Kenalog (i.e. 40-120 mg Kenalog) or an equivalent steroid medication (depo-medrol 60-120 mg, betamethasone 6-12 mg or dexamethasone 8-10 mg) in an opaque syringe.

  • ProcedureEpidural local anesthetic injection

    Epidural injectate will be 2cc of .25-1% lidocaine followed by 1-3cc of 1% lidocaine in an opaque syringe.

  • DrugEpidural steroid injection

    Epidural steroid injectate will be 2cc of .25 - 1% lidocaine followed by 1-3 cc of 40 mg/cc Kenalog (i.e. 40-120 mg Kenalog) or an equivalent steroid medication (depo-medrol 60-120 mg, betamethasone 6-12 mg or dexamethasone 8-10 mg) in an opaque syringe.

    Also known as: Kenalog, depo-medrol, betamethasone or dexamethasone

  • DrugEpidural local anesthetic injection

    Epidural injectate will be 2cc of .25-1% lidocaine followed by 1-3cc of 1% lidocaine in an opaque syringe.

    Also known as: lidocaine

06

What researchers measure

Primary outcomes

  1. Roland Morris

    The primary outcome measure will be back specific functional status, measured by the Roland Scale at 6 weeks. The RDQ is a back pain specific functional status questionnaire adapted from the Sickness Impact Profile (SIP). The RDQ consists of 24 yes/no items, which represent common dysfunctions in daily activities experienced by subjects with low back pain. A single unweighted score is derived by summing the 24 items, with higher scores indicating worse function with 0 (no disability) to 24 (maximum disability). Our primary analysis will be a simple 2-group comparison of the mean Roland score as an evaluation of the short-term efficacy of epidural steroid injection.

    Time frame: 6 weeks

Secondary outcomes

  1. Pain Numeric Rating Scale

    Leg Pain NRS is a second primary outcome at 6 weeks We measured leg pain using a 0-10 pain NRS (0=no pain and 10=worst pain imaginable) assessing average pain over the past week.

    Time frame: 6 weeks

  2. Roland Morris Disability Questionnaire (RDQ)

    The RDQ is a back pain specific functional status questionnaire adapted from the Sickness Impact Profile (SIP). The RDQ consists of 24 yes/no items, which represent common dysfunctions in daily activities experienced by subjects with low back pain. A single unweighted score is derived by summing the 24 items, with higher scores indicating worse function with 0 (no disability) to 24 (maximum disability). Our primary analysis will be a simple 2-group comparison of the mean Roland score as an evaluation of the short-term efficacy of epidural steroid injection.

    Time frame: 12 months

  3. Leg Pain NRS

    Leg Pain NRS 0-10 scale

    Time frame: 12 months

07

Results

Posted Dec 13, 2017

Participant flow

Participant flow — Overall Study
MilestoneEpidural Steroid InjectionEpidural Local Anesthetic Injection
Started200200
Completed153150
Not completed4750

Outcome measures

PrimaryRoland Morris

The primary outcome measure will be back specific functional status, measured by the Roland Scale at 6 weeks. The RDQ is a back pain specific functional status questionnaire adapted from the Sickness Impact Profile (SIP). The RDQ consists of 24 yes/no items, which represent common dysfunctions in daily activities experienced by subjects with low back pain. A single unweighted score is derived by summing the 24 items, with higher scores indicating worse function with 0 (no disability) to 24 (maximum disability). Our primary analysis will be a simple 2-group comparison of the mean Roland score as an evaluation of the short-term efficacy of epidural steroid injection.

Time frame:
6 weeks
Reported as:
Mean · units on a scale
Roland Morris
units on a scaleEpidural Steroid InjectionEpidural Local Anesthetic Injection
Roland Morris11.8 ± 6.312.5 ± 6.4
SecondaryPain Numeric Rating Scale

Leg Pain NRS is a second primary outcome at 6 weeks We measured leg pain using a 0-10 pain NRS (0=no pain and 10=worst pain imaginable) assessing average pain over the past week.

Time frame:
6 weeks
Reported as:
Mean · units on a scale
Pain Numeric Rating Scale
units on a scaleEpidural Steroid InjectionEpidural Local Anesthetic Injection
Pain Numeric Rating Scale4.4 ± 2.94.6 ± 2.9
SecondaryRoland Morris Disability Questionnaire (RDQ)

The RDQ is a back pain specific functional status questionnaire adapted from the Sickness Impact Profile (SIP). The RDQ consists of 24 yes/no items, which represent common dysfunctions in daily activities experienced by subjects with low back pain. A single unweighted score is derived by summing the 24 items, with higher scores indicating worse function with 0 (no disability) to 24 (maximum disability). Our primary analysis will be a simple 2-group comparison of the mean Roland score as an evaluation of the short-term efficacy of epidural steroid injection.

Time frame:
12 months
Reported as:
Mean · units on a scale
Roland Morris Disability Questionnaire (RDQ)
units on a scaleEpidural Steroid InjectionEpidural Local Anesthetic Injection
Roland Morris Disability Questionnaire (RDQ)12.0 ± 6.511.5 ± 7.1
SecondaryLeg Pain NRS

Leg Pain NRS 0-10 scale

Time frame:
12 months
Reported as:
Mean · units on a scale
Leg Pain NRS
units on a scaleEpidural Steroid InjectionEpidural Local Anesthetic Injection
Leg Pain NRS4.7 ± 3.14.3 ± 3.1

Adverse events

Non-serious events are listed at a 0% frequency threshold.

Adverse event summary by group
GroupDeathsSeriousOther
Epidural Steroid Injection—5/200 (2.5%)43/200 (21.5%)
Epidural Local Anesthetic Injection—4/200 (2%)31/200 (15.5%)
Most frequent serious events
Most frequent serious events
EventEpidural Steroid InjectionEpidural Local Anesthetic Injection
Hospitalization or SurgerySurgical and medical procedures5/2004/200
Most frequent other events
Most frequent other events
EventEpidural Steroid InjectionEpidural Local Anesthetic Injection
All other self reported adverse eventsGeneral disorders43/20031/200
Dural punctureInjury, poisoning and procedural complications1/2001/200

Baseline characteristics

Age, Continuous
Age, Continuous(years)Epidural Steroid InjectionEpidural Local Anesthetic InjectionTotal
Mean68.0 ± 9.868.1 ± 10.268 ± 10.0
Sex: Female, Male
Sex: Female, Male(Participants)Epidural Steroid InjectionEpidural Local Anesthetic InjectionTotal
Female117104221
Male8396179
08

Study locations

10 sites
  • Kaiser Permanente Northern California
    Redwood City, California 94063, United States
  • Kaiser Permanente Northern California
    Roseville, California 95661, United States
  • University of Colorado
    Denver, Colorado 80045, United States
  • Brigham and Women's Hospital
    Boston, Massachusetts 02467, United States
  • Henry Ford Hospital
    Detroit, Michigan 48202, United States
  • Mayo Clinic
    Rochester, Minnesota 55905, United States
  • Oregon Health and Science University
    Portland, Oregon, United States
  • Dallas VA Medical Center
    Dallas, Texas 75216, United States
  • Virginia Spine Research Institute
    Richmond, Virginia 23235, United States
  • Harborview Medical Center, University of Washington
    Seattle, Washington 98104, United States
09

References and documents

Publications

  • Friedly JL, Bresnahan BW, Comstock B, Turner JA, Deyo RA, Sullivan SD, Heagerty P, Bauer Z, Nedeljkovic SS, Avins AL, Nerenz D, Jarvik JG. Study protocol- Lumbar Epidural steroid injections for Spinal Stenosis (LESS): a double-blind randomized controlled trial of epidural steroid injections for lumbar spinal stenosis among older adults. BMC Musculoskelet Disord. 2012 Mar 29;13:48. doi: 10.1186/1471-2474-13-48. PubMed 22458343 ↗
  • Turner JA, Comstock BA, Standaert CJ, Heagerty PJ, Jarvik JG, Deyo RA, Wasan AD, Nedeljkovic SS, Friedly JL. Can patient characteristics predict benefit from epidural corticosteroid injections for lumbar spinal stenosis symptoms? Spine J. 2015 Nov 1;15(11):2319-31. doi: 10.1016/j.spinee.2015.06.050. Epub 2015 Jun 19. PubMed 26096484 ↗
  • Suri P, Pashova H, Heagerty PJ, Jarvik JG, Turner JA, Comstock BA, Bauer Z, Annaswamy TM, Nedeljkovic SS, Wasan AD, Friedly JL. Short-term improvements in disability mediate patient satisfaction after epidural corticosteroid injections for symptomatic lumbar spinal stenosis. Spine (Phila Pa 1976). 2015 Sep 1;40(17):1363-70. doi: 10.1097/BRS.0000000000001000. PubMed 26010037 ↗
  • Friedly JL, Comstock BA, Turner JA, Heagerty PJ, Deyo RA, Sullivan SD, Bauer Z, Bresnahan BW, Avins AL, Nedeljkovic SS, Nerenz DR, Standaert C, Kessler L, Akuthota V, Annaswamy T, Chen A, Diehn F, Firtch W, Gerges FJ, Gilligan C, Goldberg H, Kennedy DJ, Mandel S, Tyburski M, Sanders W, Sibell D, Smuck M, Wasan A, Won L, Jarvik JG. A randomized trial of epidural glucocorticoid injections for spinal stenosis. N Engl J Med. 2014 Jul 3;371(1):11-21. doi: 10.1056/NEJMoa1313265. Erratum In: N Engl J Med. 2014 Jul 24;371(4):390. PubMed 24988555 ↗
  • Friedly JL, Comstock BA, Turner JA, Heagerty PJ, Deyo RA, Bauer Z, Avins AL, Nedeljkovic SS, Nerenz DR, Shi XR, Annaswamy T, Standaert CJ, Smuck M, Kennedy DJ, Akuthota V, Sibell D, Wasan AD, Diehn F, Suri P, Rundell SD, Kessler L, Chen AS, Jarvik JG. Long-Term Effects of Repeated Injections of Local Anesthetic With or Without Corticosteroid for Lumbar Spinal Stenosis: A Randomized Trial. Arch Phys Med Rehabil. 2017 Aug;98(8):1499-1507.e2. doi: 10.1016/j.apmr.2017.02.029. Epub 2017 Apr 8. PubMed 28396242 ↗
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Updates

Tracking since Sep 25, 2026
No changes since tracking began. The registry record was last updated on Dec 13, 2017, before this site started recording changes on Sep 25, 2026. Its history is on ClinicalTrials.gov ↗
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Registry details

Key details

Study ID
NCT01238536
Lead sponsor
University of Washington
Collaborators
Kaiser Permanente, University of California, San Francisco, Henry Ford Hospital, Harvard Pilgrim Health Care, Harvard Vanguard Medical Associates, University of Colorado, Denver, Mayo Clinic, Stanford University, Massachusetts General Hospital, Virginia Spine Research Institute, Oregon Health and Science University, Dallas VA Medical Center
Responsible party
Janna Friedly (Assistant Professor, University of Washington) — Principal investigator
First posted
Nov 10, 2010
Start date
Apr 2011
Primary completion
Aug 2013
Completion
Sep 2015
Results posted
Dec 13, 2017
Last update
Dec 13, 2017

Study contacts

Janna L Friedly, MD
principal investigator · University of Washington

Oversight

Data monitoring committee
Yes
View the source record on ClinicalTrials.gov ↗

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