Tuesday, November 27, 2012

Treating Pinched Nerve Pain with Epidural Steroid Injections

By David Greene


Patients seeking relief from extreme lower back pain are usually doing so from a bulging or herniated disc. Chiropractic medicine is often chosen as an alternative to invasive and risky surgeries when pain medications and physical therapies have been exhausted without much success. Patients are searching for a non-surgical means of pain relief to help alleviate the pressure around the affected pain and flush out the painful chemicals built up around the site.

The Painful Reality

Pain, whether it takes the form of an acute reaction to a stimulus or it is a chronic issue resulting from a permanent injury, will always be here. Even if an individual makes it through life without an injury pain will likely still come to fruition through age with wear and tear on the joints by normal use. But the threat of pain is no longer as concerning as before, because we as a society have become more apt at dealing with pain treatment and the rehabilitation of an affected area.

Non-Surgical Steroid Treatments

One of the most common non-operative pain treatments is epidural steroid injections. They have been given in medical practice since the 1950s in both the cervical and lumbar spinal areas. The injection is given directly into the affected area utilizing a real-time x-ray machine called a fluoroscopy. This helps ensure more accurate needle placement.

The epidural shot result may end up giving minimal pain relief for a week all the way up to a year of pain relief. If individual does get some relief with the initial injection, the pain management doctor may want to give a series of injections over the next 6 weeks.

During these longer, and repeat, doses that an ESI is commonly paired with an extensive rehab program as the injection allows for the target area to become exercised towards better reliability and function. The most common of these injections is that of the lumbar ESI, administered in an effort to reduce back pain typically due to a pinched nerve or injured disc.

Effective and Long Lasting

An ESI functions by having steroids delivered directly into the area as an anti-inflammatory agent. Inflammation is a common cause of many lower back pains, thus reduction of this helps to alleviate pain. Triamcinolone and methylprednisolone are two of the steroids commonly used in this manner.

In some procedures an additional fluid, typical local anesthetic or saline depending on the severity, is used in an effort to wash out part of the inflammation already in place so the ESI may have better effects on the target area. ESIs have such a lasting effect because they serve to inhibit the body's innate immune response, which is the direct cause of the previously mentioned inflammation and leading source of pain.

Immediate Relief

On all epidural shots are very beneficial to patients, with the results of studies showing a 75% good to excellent outcome. With well over 100 million individuals in the US dealing with chronic pain, immediate pain relief may be as simple as going to see your local pain management physician.




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