At Georgia Brain & Spine Center
For most people, pain is a useful signal from our body. For the 50 million Americans with chronic pain, though, it’s only a source of suffering on a daily basis. Understandably, these patients often don’t want to become dependent on pain medications. In some cases, epidural injections can help.
An epidural injection is an advanced intervention procedure used primarily for pain management, though it may also be used in diagnostics. There are a variety of different types of injections, and they serve a variety of different purposes.
The most common type of epidural injection is a combination of an anesthetic and an anti-inflammatory steroid. The goal of the injections is to decrease the inflammation and swelling of the soft tissues such as the nerve roots and the joints of the spine. The steroid starts working in about 2-7 days, and the effect can last for weeks to months or even longer, though this varies from one patient to the next.
Our neurosurgeons deliver the medication to the area of inflammation and the source of your pain in your back or neck. We use state-of-the-art technology called a C-Arm Fluoroscope with a laser guidance system to safely and accurately deliver the injection around the nerves and joints of the spine. We inject the medication into around the sac that contains your nerves. These injections are outpatient procedures, completed under local anesthesia and, at times, mild sedation as well.
In addition to these common epidural steroid injections, there are different types of injections based on what part of the spine we need to target. These include selective nerve root blocks (SNRB), facet joint blocks, facet rhizotomies, and sacroiliac joint blocks. Each injection serves a particular purpose, so it is important to get a proper evaluation and diagnosis to ensure the correct treatment is used.
On top of avoiding the risk of opiate addiction from long-term pain medications, epidural injections carry no risk of paralysis because the spinal cord ends at a higher level of the spine. Keep in mind that the injection can also provide relief for patients during an episode of acute back or nerve pain while still allowing the patient to progress in their therapy and rehabilitation.
It is important to note that while some patients may only need one injection, others may need two or three injections over the course of a few weeks to reduce the inflammation and relieve their pain and symptoms.
On top of treating pain, we can also use epidural injections to help determine the source of your pain. If we inject a numbing medication into a specific area and you feel temporary relief, this tells us where you pain originates. We can consider this along with all our other data and exam results to reach a diagnosis and plan a course of treatment.