Title: Retrospective Chart Review:Efficacy of methylprednisolone vs. triamcinolone used in lumbar epidural steroid injections
Creator: Judith A Strong, University of Cincinnati, College of Medicine, Department of Anesthesiology
Identifier: Pain_Research_01
Subject: pain, lumbar epidural steroid injection, degenerative disc disease, methylprednisolone, triamcinolone, low back pain, radiculopathy, smoking, Depo-Medrol, Kenalog
Funders: Department of Anesthesiology, University of Cincinnati College of Medicine, Cincinnati OH USA
Rights:  Public
Language: English
Data Processing: clinical descriptors were normalized. Comorbid conditions were classified as indicated in the “list of comorbid conditions” worksheet. Other processing is described in the publication ****.
Methodology: Retrospective electronic medical record chart review of patients receiving lumbar epidural steroid injections for low back pain with diagnosis of degenerative disc disease during the period 8/1/15 through 8/31/17. Further described in publication *****.
Sources: Original material from Epic electronic medical records of the UC Health system related to the University of Cincinnati.  Reviewed under IRB protocol 2017-2240 “Efficacy of methylprednisolone (Depo-Medrol) vs. triamcinolone (Kenalog) used in lumbar epidural steroid injections for the treatment of chronic lower back pain”. Original material is not publically available and data have been anonymized.
List of file names:  RAW_DATA.XSLX, RAW_DATA_CSV.CSV, COMORBID_CONDITIONS_CSV.CSV, ABBREVIATIONS_CSV.CSV
File Formats:  Excel (Microsoft Office Professional Plus 2019), csv, text
File Structure:
File RAW_DATA.XLSX
“Raw data” worksheet columns:  (same data saved as CSW format “RAW_DATA_CSV.CSV”); 1 line per subject, columns are:
A. Study ID
B. Age (years)
C. Sex
D. Race
E. Ethnicity
F. Height (feet; inches)
G. Weight (pounds)
H. Weight convert to kg
I. BMI; kg/m-squared
J. Procedure Code
K. Smoking Status (original chart data)
L. Smoking status; concise (combing similar categories and terms)
M. current smoker? Yes or No
N. Clinic: Clinic: 1 =  University of Cincinnati, University Hospital surgery outpatient pain clinic operated by the University of Cincinnati Department of Anesthesiology,  2 = University of Cincinnati Physicians Pain Medicine Clinics (suburban outpatient pain clinics operated by the University of Cincinnati Department of Anesthesiology)
O. drug injected 
P. 1st injection outcome (0 or 1 or 2): 0, poor response to injection, alternative treatment recommended; 1, partial response to injection so a second injection was recommended; or 2, good response to injection so no further injections immediately recommended
Q. specify if "other" outcome
R. pain rating before injection 0-10 (0 = no pain 10 = worst possible pain)
S. pain rating after injection followup 0-10 (0 = no pain 10 = worst possible pain)
T. percent improvement rating after injection followup (as estimated by patient at followup visit approx 1 month after injection)
U. length of relief at injection followup (weeks)
V. relief still observed at followup visit referred to (yes or no)
W. back pain etiology diagnosis (only those with degenerative disc disease included)
X. positive leg raise test? (yes or no – clinical test: “The straight leg raise test is performed with the patient in a supine position. The examiner gently raises the patient's leg by flexing the hip with the knee in extension, and the test is considered positive when the patient experiences pain along the lower limb in the same distribution of the lower radicular nerve roots (usually L5 or S1).”
Y. radiating/referred to leg? Yes or no – radiculopathy symptoms, i.e., sciatica
Z. DDD confirmed with MRI?
AA. matched to  subject: subjects from clinic 2 were selected as far as possible by matching to age, sex, race, and BMI to subjects identified from clinic 1
AB: time to second injection (weeks)
AC: comorbitidies with uniform terms: items from subjects’ current problem list at time of injection, with terms normalized
AD: radiculopathy? Yes or no
AE: subject has at lease one separate pain condition (non spine)? Yes or no
AF:subject has at lease one additional spine condition? Yes or no
AG: subject has at least one joint-related problem? Yes or no
AH: HTN (hypertension) Yes or no
AI: Type 2 DM (diabetes) Yes or no
AJ: estimated duration of pain (years)  Values <1 are months divided byt 12
Worksheet “list of comorbid conditions” (also saved as CSW file “Comorbid_Conditions_CSV.CSV”)
Indicates normalized terms for comorbid conditions, and indicates which were counted as separate pain condition (column AE in Raw Data), separate spine condition (column AF), joint problem (AG) or muscle problems (AH)
Workheet “abbreviations” (also saved as CSW file “ABBREVIATIONS_CSV.CSV”)
indicates meaning of any abbreviations used in raw data file for clinical conditions
Variable list: see list of columns for raw data worksheet
Code:  x is used to indicate missing data.  / is used to separate different comorbidities in column AC.
Version: 01