Non-surgical treatment options are often the way to go when it comes to back and neck pain. At Glaser Pain Relief Center in Encino, California, Jeffrey Glaser, MD, and John Zheng, DO, specialize in minimally invasive treatment for pain. They offer epidural steroid injections to alleviate many different symptoms of pain along your spinal cord. If you’re in the San Fernando Valley or Greater Los Angeles Area, find out more about this helpful treatment option by calling or booking an appointment online today.
Epidural steroid injections are a non-surgical treatment designed to alleviate pain caused by a variety of spinal conditions. There are two main types of injections.
This approach allows your medication to spread through the epidural space. Translaminar injections aren't root-specific. If foraminal stenosis exists, injected medications may not exit the foramen.
This approach uses injection therapy medications around nerve roots at the exact site of your inflammation.
The injections deliver a long-lasting steroid and an anesthetic agent to the irritated or inflamed spinal nerve that’s causing you pain.
The goal of epidural steroid injections is to reduce pain so that you can resume your normal activities and start or continue physical therapy.
Epidural steroid injections can relieve symptoms associated with many spinal conditions, including, but not limited to:
Epidural steroid injections are commonly used in conjunction with a rehabilitation program to provide additional pain relief.
Epidural steroid injections deliver medication directly, or very close to, the source of your pain. Alternative short-term pain relief treatments like oral steroids and painkillers are a less-direct treatment.
Since most pain originates from chemical inflammation, epidural steroid injections can target local inflammation while also getting rid of inflammatory proteins and chemicals that may worsen your pain.
Epidural steroid injections are safe, and complications are extremely rare. Sometimes, you may experience side effects from the actual epidural steroid used in treatment. This is rare and occurs much less frequently than side effects associated with oral steroids.
Some of the potential side effects include:
At Glaser Pain Relief Center, your pain specialist discusses your medical history with you, performs a physical exam, and analyzes your symptoms to determine whether epidural steroid injections are a good treatment option for you.
If you have back or neck pain, don’t jump straight to spine surgery. Contact Glaser Pain Relief Center to discuss non-surgical treatment options by calling the office or booking an appointment online today.