The purposes of the project are to assess the ability of the Six-Minute-Walking Test (6WT) and Timed-Up and Go (TUG) test to measure and classify the disease burden, and to determine their relation to already established subjective patient reported outcome measures (PROMs)in patients treated with either interlaminar epidural steroid injection (ESI) or transforaminal epidural steroid injections (TFESI) for lumbar degenerative disc disease (DDD). No research has so far determined its validity to determine OFI in a cohort of patients managed conservatively. We want to use an existing smartphone-applications for the 6WT and TUG test. Applying self-measurement of the 6WT within the context of a two center observational study will determine OFI in patients before and after (TF)ESI. The results of this study add to the understanding of achievable objective outcomes after steroid injection applied to patients with DDD.
The primary objective is to determine the validity of the Six-Minute-Walking Test (6WT) and Timed-Up and Go (TUG) test to measure objective functional impairment (OFI) in patients undergoing either interlaminar epidural steroid injection (ESI) or transforaminal epidural steroid injections (TFESI) for lumbar degenerative disc disease (DDD)