About 90 percent of people will have back
pain at some point in their lives. As long
as we have gravity and are walking on our
feet, we are at risk for having back pain
at some time.
Lumbar epidural steroid injection is the procedure
and it is typically for patients that have
back pain related to degenerative disc disease
or degenerative change of the bones in the
back.
A lot of time with those problems, you have
what is called spinal stenosis or narrowing
of the canal in your back that holds all the
nerve roots. What the procedure allows us
to do is to put some medicine, some steroid
and a numbing medicine, into the epidural
space. That is the space right outside the
nerves, so if the nerves are being compressed
or inflamed from a disc herniation, we can
get the medicine right where it needs to be.
Patients get pain relief and there is potential
for the herniated discs to shrink down over
time.
We usually have some sort of imaging on the
patient, we start with an x-ray but we like
to get an M.R. I. to get a lay of the land
and see where most of the disease is, most
of the spinal stenosis or nerve compression
is.
Once we figure out where the problem is, we
are able to put the medicine in the right
spot. The patients usually come and we get
them on a fluoroscopy table on their belly,
mark a spot on the skin and use the x-ray
machine to guide us and show us where the
needle needs to be. We put the needle into
the epidural space; confirm it and once it
is in the right spot we put the medicine in.
The needle comes out and the patients usually
stick around for about a half hour after the
procedure and as long as there are no problems
they can go home and take it easy for the
rest of that day and the following day they
can return to their normal activities.
The procedure itself is not a painful procedure.
We use local numbing medicine to get the needle
in place and patients tolerate it very well.
They go home about a half hour after we are
done. A lot of patients are surprised because
they feel so good so quickly.
This procedure, we offer it typically the
same day as requested. If not, we can get
it done the following day. That is a great
service. A lot of the pain management services
in town will make you wait anywhere from one
to three weeks if you want to get an injection
like this. We pride ourselves on quick service
and getting patients feeling better rapidly.
We can do the procedure up to three times
in a year. Some patients spread it out. They
get one done and maybe a couple of months
later they get another to avoid surgery. Surgery
is typically the last resort.
Either you’ve had back pain before or you
know somebody who has had back pain, it’s
not a pleasant thing, so we like to get patients
feeling better.
