Epidural Steroid Injections
Atlas Pain and Spine uses Epidural Steroid Injections to help relieve neck, back and radiating pain in the arms and legs. This type of therapy may include cervical, lumbar, caudal or transforaminal steroid injections. These are used when you have failed more conservative treatments. The steroids help reduce inflammation and irritation caused by bulging discs, spinal stenosis (narrowing spinal canal), and foraminal stenosis (narrowing around the spinal nerve roots). Sometimes patients respond to just one injection, but sometimes repeat injections (several weeks or months apart) are needed.
Steps:
1. Overview: Your vitals will be taken, a safety check performed and your medical history updated. You will then be brought to the procedure suite.
2. Sedation and Positioning: You will be positioned lying down on your stomach with help from our friendly staff. Sedation may be administered intravenously and the skin over the procedure site numbed.
3. Injection: Using X-ray guidance, a needle will be inserted into the epidural space near the location of the inflamed nerves. Confirmation of the location will be done with further X-ray images and injection of contrast dye, which shows up on X-ray. Steroid and possibly some local anesthetic will be injected, and then the needle will be removed. A band-aid will be applied to the injection site. You’re all done! Generally, the procedure itself will only take a few minutes. Variations may be made to accommodate for patients’ individual conditions or allergies.
4. Recovery: Our friendly staff will take you to a recovery area where you’ll be monitored for any unlikely issues or complications, and follow-up appointments will be scheduled.