Get Some Much-Needed Relief with an Epidural Steroid Injection

Chronic back pain can keep you from your favorite activities and ultimately cause a disability. If medications aren’t providing pain relief, it’s time to consider the benefits of epidural steroid injections.

At AABP Integrative Pain Care, our team of board-certified pain management specialists offer epidural steroid injections to treat back pain and a range of other pain conditions. Our providers can determine if this type of treatment is right for you during a comprehensive physical exam and other diagnostic tests.

What to know about epidural steroid injections

Epidural steroid injections are a minimally invasive, outpatient treatment option for chronic pain conditions.

Each injection contains a local anesthetic and a corticosteroid. The anesthetic numbs irritated nerves in the epidural space of your spine. This fat-filled space is in between the vertebrae of your spine and the surrounding spinal nerves.

The corticosteroid in the injection is beneficial for relieving inflammation in your nerves and nearby tissues to ease pain and improve your mobility.

To ensure the injection goes into the proper location within your spine, our team relies on fluoroscopy, a real-time X-ray technology. Using fluoroscopy, your provider guides the needle into the epidural space of your spine before injecting the medications.

When to consider an epidural steroid injection

Our team at AABP Integrative Pain Care may recommend an epidural steroid injection if oral pain relievers or steroids aren’t working well for you. You may also benefit from an epidural steroid injection if you can’t participate in physical therapy as part of your rehabilitation because your pain is too severe.

Epidural steroid injections can relieve persistent pain that results from spine injuries or conditions like:

• Sciatica
• Herniated disc
• Spinal stenosis
• Spondylolisthesis
• Degenerative disc disease

These conditions can cause back and neck pain. They can also trigger pain that radiates down into your shoulders, arms, hips, and legs. Numbness, weakness, and tingling can result in these areas as well.

If you’re not ready for surgery but need reliable pain relief, we can perform a comprehensive diagnostic evaluation of your spine health to confirm that epidural steroid injections are right for you.

Benefits of epidural steroid injections

Following your epidural steroid injection, you may not feel immediate relief of pain. In some cases, pain can seem to increase for a few days before the medications start working. However, you should be able to resume your usual activities right away without any downtime.

Many people enjoy long-lasting pain relief after their initial injection. Pain relief can last for several months before you need another injection. If you have severe pain, you may need a series of injections to provide optimal results.

Once your pain levels decrease after your injection, our providers may recommend physical therapy, home exercises, and other strategies that support the healing of soft tissues in your spine. These treatments can lower your risk for additional pain and the need for surgery.

To find out if you’re a candidate for epidural steroid injections, call AABP Integrative Pain Care or book a diagnostic evaluation online today.