When to Consider an Epidural for Your Chronic Back Pain

Back or neck pain can make even the smallest efforts impossible, from driving to desk work, and even sleeping. Back pain isn’t just debilitating; it’s also prevalent. Eight out of 10 Americans experience it at some point in their lives.

The specialists at Pain Medicine Group, with offices in Sarasota and Oviedo, Florida, have helped countless patients with back pain reclaim active lives. They offer personalized treatment plans that utilize a variety of modalities, including epidural steroid injections.

Epidural injections deliver a corticosteroid medication into the epidural space around the spinal cord and nerve roots to reduce inflammation and relieve pain associated with nerve compression or irritation.

In this month’s blog, the Pain Medicine Group team explains how epidural injections work and whether they may be right for you.

Back or neck pain caused by nerve compression

Your spine primarily supports your musculoskeletal system and facilitates movement. It also houses your spinal cord, which is part of your central nervous system.

As ground zero for your peripheral nervous system, your spinal cord acts as the primary starting point for most of the nerves in your body and contains sensitive nerve roots along its length.

Many conditions cause back and/or neck pain. Among the more common are those that compress nerve roots, causing symptoms that are both local and those that radiate into your limbs. These conditions include:

Herniated disks, which can lead to sciatica
Spinal stenosis
Osteoarthritis
Degenerative disc disease

Nerve-related spine pain typically occurs in the neck or lower back, as these areas are the most active and experience the most movement.

Getting relief from nerve-related back or neck pain

Epidural injections are highly effective in relieving nerve-related back pain. These injections contain an anesthetic for pain relief and a steroid to reduce inflammation.

An epidural injection can also help alleviate radiating symptoms that travel into your arms or legs (a condition we call radiculopathy).

The procedure

First, your skin is numbed with a local anesthetic or anesthesia. Next, your provider injects the steroid or corticosteroid medication into the epidural space around the spinal cord.

Fluoroscopy, a type of X-ray, may be used to ensure the safe and proper position of the needle. Dye is also injected to ensure the needle is in the correct spot.

The steroid coats the irritated nerve(s) responsible for your pain and works to reduce swelling and pressure on the nerves. The steroid gives the nerve(s) time to heal.

After the procedure, you’ll need to refrain from driving, engaging in intense exercise, and lifting heavy objects for at least 24 hours. This helps minimize strain on the epidural space and the injected area.

Following the injection, some patients experience numbness in the arms or legs due to the local anesthetic. This should subside within 4 to 6 hours. It’s also common for patients to feel an increase in pain in the days following the epidural.

However, some experience immediate pain relief. For others, it may take several days for the steroid to begin working.

To learn whether epidural steroid injections can alleviate your chronic back pain, book a consultation with the pain specialists at Pain Medicine Group. Call the location most convenient to you, or request an appointment online.

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