Many people experience lower back pain at some point in life. Often the pain subsides within a few days or weeks, but what would you do if it persists and limits your daily activities? That is the time you should see a pain specialist at a pain management clinic for lower back pain treatment. Spinal injections are a common and highly effective treatment option for lower back pain patients.
Spinal injections are gaining popularity because they not only offer pain relief but also reduce inflammation which is the root cause of pain in most back-pain cases.
The spinal injection is performed as a non-invasive, outpatient procedure that takes about 10-15 minutes to perform. A common spinal injection that relieves back pain is the Epidural Steroid Injection (ESI). The doctor injects a mixture of a steroid and anesthetic directly into the spine near the inflamed or irritated nerve.
Epidural Steroid Injections are advised when conservative treatments, such as NSAIDs and physical therapy, have failed to relieve chronic neck and back pain in the following cases –
- Joint and muscle pain
- Degenerative disc disease
- Osteoarthritis
- Peripheral neuropathy
- Sciatica
Since the injection is an outpatient procedure, there is no downtime. After about half an hour of monitoring, you can go home and resume activities that do not involve strenuous exercise. You would experience immediate pain relief due to the anesthetic but the steroids start taking effect within a week or so. Your doctor may choose to repeat the injection after a period of time, if you experience significant pain relief.