2.

Epidural steroid injection vs mild decompression ±fusion for lumbar spinal stenosis
Patient or population: lumbar spinal stenosis Intervention: epidural steroid injection Comparison: decompression ± fusion
Outcomes	Relative effect (95% CI)	Outcome means	Number of participants (studies)	Quality of the evidence (GRADE)	Comments
Oswestry Disability Index ‐ 6 weeks	(MD 5.70, 95% CI 0.57 to 10.83)	Epidural injection: 34.8 Mild decompression: 27.4	38 (1)	⊕⊕⊝⊝ Low
Visual Analogue Scale (VAS) ‐ 6 weeks	(MD 2.40, 95% CI 1.92 to 2.88)	Epidural injection: 6.3 Mild decompression: 3.8	38 (1)	⊕⊕⊝⊝ Low
Zurich Claudication Questionnaire ‐ 6 weeks	(MD ‐0.60, 95% CI ‐0.77 to ‐0.43)	Epidural injection: 2.8 Mild decompression: 2.2	38 (1)	⊕⊕⊝⊝ Low
CI: confidence interval; MD: mean difference GRADE Working Group grades of evidence High quality: Further research is very unlikely to change our confidence in the estimate of effect Moderate quality: Further research is likely to have an important impact on our confidence in the estimate of effect and may change the estimate Low quality: Further research is very likely to have an important impact on our confidence in the estimate of effect and is likely to change the estimate Very low quality: We are very uncertain about the estimate

Although this study had low risk of bias, this was the only study examined. Further research is very likely to have an impact on our confidence