All patients enrolled in the study will already be undergoing lumbar epidural steroid injections for lumbar radicular pain as part of their clinical care. The epidural approach will either be transforaminal or interlaminar depending on clinical judgment (i.e. transforaminal ESI for unilateral pain, interlaminar ESI for bilateral pain). The study will consist of 3 groups: virtual reality, sedation, and a control group which receives no intervention (i.e. standard of care). The virtual reality group will receive virtual reality via a headset containing a menu of 6 programs that the subject can choose; the sedation group will receive from 1-5 mg of midazolam and up to 150 mcg of fentanyl as clinically indicated, and the control group will not receive an intervention (standard of care). All subjects will also receive 1% lidocaine local anesthetic through a 25-gauge needle for superficial anesthesia, which is standard of care. Subjects will be randomized to each of these groups, with sub-allocation being done stratified by the type of ESI (transforaminal vs. interlaminar).~A secondary pilot study will evaluate whether a processed electroencephalogram (pEEG) and continuous colored density spectral array monitored via a four-channel Masimo SEDLine frontal EEG sensor can serve as a biomarker for painful stimulation and the effectiveness of distraction and sedation to reduce acute pain.
This study examines the impact of virtual reality compared to sedation (midazolam and/or fentanyl) and no intervention on pain experienced from an epidural steroid injection (ESI). The intervention group (who receive virtual reality as a distraction modality) is compared to a sedation group and a control group.