Complex Information for Anesthesiologists Presented Quickly and Clearly
We extracted the number of epidural injections performed between 2000 and 2012 for Medicare patients using the Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services.* Single-shot lumbar epidural injections were identified by Current Procedural Terminology (CPT) codes 62311 (interlaminar) and 64483 (transforaminal). Single-shot cervical and thoracic epidural injections were identified by CPT codes 62310 (interlaminar) and 64479 (transforaminal). The total procedure counts per year were plotted (left axis), separating lumbar from cervical and thoracic single-shot injections, and transforaminal from nontransforaminal injections. The cumulative number of American Board of Medicine Specialties Certified Pain Medicine Subspecialists† were plotted per year (right axis).
Infographic created by Jonathan P. Wanderer, Vanderbilt University School of Medicine, and James P. Rathmell, Massachusetts General Hospital/Harvard Medical School. Illustration by J. Rathmell; G. Nelson; and A. Johnson, Vivo Visuals. Address correspondence to Dr. Rathmell: rathmell.james@mgh.harvard.edu.
Physician/Supplier Procedure Summary Master File. Available at: http://www.cms.gov/Research-Statistics-Data-and-Systems/Files-for-Order/NonIdentifiableDataFiles/PhysicianSupplierProcedureSummaryMasterFile.html. Accessed August 29, 2014.
Data provided by the American Board of Anesthesiology, Inc., and represents the total number of physicians from all primary medical specialties with subspecialty board certification in Pain Medicine.
