Epidural Steroid Injections Pain Management Doctors NYC

Epidural Steroid Injections for Back Pain Relief

Back pain is one of the most common medical complaints in the United States. Four-fifths of the population have had back pain or will experience it during their lives. If your back pain doesn’t respond to rest and over-the-counter pain medicine, you may need something stronger. To treat back pain, before you resort to surgery, you can try a much less invasive procedure: an epidural steroid injection.

Injecting pain and anti-inflammatory medication where it can do the most good is a fairly common practice in the U.S. because it often works. When bone spurs, herniated discs or other maladies squeeze your nerve, the result is almost always back pain. An epidural steroid injection eases that pain.

Injections to Treat Back Pain

Your spine runs from just beneath your skull to your tailbone just beneath your pelvis. Just as your spine serves different purposes in different locations, you need a specific type of epidural injection for those different points. Your NYC back pain management doctor offers:

  • Caudal epidural steroid injections
  • Cervical epidural steroid injections
  • Lumbar epidural steroid injections
  • Sacroiliac epidural steroid injections
  • Transforaminal epidural steroid injections

Depending on the severity and location of your back pain, you can get the right injection for you and your condition. Usually, you’ll feel pain relief after just one injection, although it may take up to a half hour for the medicine to work and your pain to disappear.

Are Epidural Steroid Injections Painful?

The point of an epidural injection is to relieve your pain, not inflict more. Most people can stand the injection with nothing more than a topical anesthetic, but you can request a mild sedative if it makes you feel less anxious about the procedure.

A pain management specialist first finds the nerve that’s the source of your pain. This is usually accomplished by having you describe your pain and doing a physical examination. To be sure, your doctor may have you undergo one or several diagnostic tests.

Once your doctor has identified the painful area in your spine, he can prepare and deliver the medication. The injection doesn’t go into your spine; it goes into the epidural space around your spine. The steroid medication reduces swelling in the area, which eliminates the pain you feel and allows your body to heal.

Conditions Addressed by Injection

Epidural steroid injections can’t resolve everyone’s back pain. They are well suited for certain conditions that don’t respond to more conservative treatments. That’s why you need an accurate diagnosis and an appropriate back pain management treatment plan. Some of the illnesses and injuries that an epidural steroid injection can address include:

The anti-inflammatory properties of the medicine don’t heal your body by themselves, but by reducing the swelling, an injection gives your body the time it needs to heal. Pain management specialists consider medicated injections non-invasive treatments, especially as compared to the complexities of back surgery.

Manhattan Pain and Sports Associates focuses solely on the prevention, diagnosis, best in class treatment and rehabilitation of painful disorders. Comprehensive assessments by our doctors are an essential component of our pain management & Sports medicine practice. We are committed to providing personalized solutions for pain to greatly improve your quality of life. We understand that each patient has a unique problem and therefore customize each and every pain management program.

Manhattan Pain and Sports Associates
51 East 25th St, 4th Floor, Ste B
New York, NY 10010
(212) 533-3954