Have known several people with back trouble who have gotten better with "epidurals, steroids, and radiofrequency ablation".
They have gone from not being able to twist and bend to being able to move freely.
Everyone can make their own choice in the matter but be cautious of anything that comes from a "meta study". Because mostly what you are being sold is what the bull left in the pasture.
I’ve had more epidural style nerve injections, 5+ ablations, two disk replacements and I’m very thankful for every damn one.
The curious part is the ages of the participants, and if they saw true professionals or guessers who didn’t know spines very well. Case in point I saw multiple spine doctors, went to Stanford, we were chasing multiple pain generators: facet bone on bone, and three badly degenerated discs from time in the military in my 20’s.
Every single one has made significant multi year improvment in my pain and suffering - most notable was the disc replacements as they gave the space needed to prevent vertebrate on vertebrae vice grips to get off my never endings which lead to radiculopathy.
Usually its a multi disc compounding issue rather than one point on the spine that needs attention.
The issue is - as time goes on our discs collapse onto each other rubbing and grinding as our deep neck stabilizer muscles weaken.
Compound any injury where nerve pain causes muscles to atrophy or guarding, its a highly complex 3D shot in the dark that few Dr’s can accurately diagnose.
I went to my final doctor after trying multiple doctors for 5+ years to no effect.
After meeting with him he told me 1: it was fixable and quick, the second to find a new MRI provider as the one I was going to had a shit machine with bad scans which most doctors never even noticed.
1 month later my 10+ year journey with maddening-to-the-point-of-almost-committing-suicide pain levels that would wake me up out of a dead sleep...were gone, like a light switch.
I just had an old army buddy who had similar issues and this same doctor did the same procedure. Same result.
The issue is always the spacing between the discs, and the rubbing and pinching that occurs when joints wear out.
The shots, nerve ablations are usually trying to numb the location of the pain without addressing the structural issues underneath.
Most of the shots are a troubleshooting process to figure out where the pain is actually generated from.
Mix in Health insurance approvals the diagnosis process can take a year for one single pain generating location.
Its bananas, but one that isn’t without and end, and certainly it does help a massive massive amount.
Read this study with caution, the issue is headspace and timing between the vertebrae above and below usually.