What is an Epidural Injection?How do epidural injections work?

The use of Injections for back pain has become common in modern treatment procedure. Sometimes, only physical therapy and prescriptive medicines are not enough to get rid of our chronic or acute pains. Our Goodlife Physical Medicine specialists and doctors in Los Angeles suggest and apply fluoroscopy-guided epidural injections to relieve your low-back pain. If you live in LA, call your nearest centre and book an appointment slot for you.

What is an Epidural Injection?

An Epidural Injection is injected into your spine to relieve your back pain. Epidural space is the outer layer of our spinal cord that expands from the skull to the tailbone. The layer consists of tissues, blood vessels and nerves. The epidural injection has several usages,

• Works as an anaesthetic solution during an operation

• Relieves pain at post-surgery state

• Helps in the diagnosis and treatment of back and low-back pain

How do epidural injections work?

Epidural Injections contain steroid and some anaesthetic element. Anti-inflammatory medicines like cortisone decrease the production of molecules responsible for chronic inflammation. Therefore, the injections can help relieve nerve irritation, arthritis, and scar tissue formation.

The steroid in the injection breaks the cycle of inflammation and cures the pain. The anaesthetic element in the injection helps to numb the painful areas. The anaesthetic element is used at the nerve blocks to find out the source of pain. Our team experts also use Sarapin, the herbal anti-inflammatory, in their epidural injections.

What happens after you take an Epidural Injection?

When you are fully prepared for the Epidural procedures, the doctor will insert a small tube into your vein. Then, if you want a sedative, it will be injected into your bloodstream through the cannula (tube).

Then, you will lie down on your belly on a treatment table, and the provider will give you a local anaesthetic injection into your skin. Our team uses fluoroscopy to guide the needle into your nerve in the spine.

The Epidural procedure takes 15-20 minutes, and you will be kept under an observation period of 30-40 minutes.

How long does the effect of the epidural injection last?

You will feel an intense numbness and a sense of relief for a long time after you take the epidural injection. Your acute back or low-back pain may return back again with the fading off of the anaesthetic effect. The patients may feel excessive pain and stiffness initially after taking the epidural injection.

The relief period can differ from patient to patient. For example, some patients enjoy the relief and peace of a single dose of epidural injection for months; on the contrary, some needs a number of sequential doses to reduce the pain.

To date, as per the surveys, most of the patients have experienced the benefits of the injections for back pain. If you are willing for the epidural procedures, you can contact the Goodlife Physical Medicine Team to avail the treatments.

You can call us to get more information, or you can book an appointment today.