Injection for back pain may help treat two major back pain problems: radiculopathy and spinal stenosis. Doctors also use injections for other types of back pain. Radiculopathy refers to inflammation or damage to a nerve usually in the neck or the low back causing a sharp pain which occurs from the lower back down into one or both legs or from the neck into the arm. With spinal stenosis, the lower spine becomes narrowed. As a result, it compresses the nerves inside. This usually causes pain in the buttock or leg and may or may not be accompanied by back pain. The pain from spinal stenosis may increase with activity. It may also lessen when you lean forward.
There is several injection for back pain these are:
- Epidural
- nerve block
- discography
An epidural injections are performed the patient has to lie face down on a table or special bed. The doctor then sedates the patient. The epidural injection takes place in several steps:
- The skin will be cleaned and injected with an anesthetic to numb it.
- The doctor will insert a needle through the skin toward the spine.
- The doctor will use a machine that produces live X-ray video called fluoroscopy. With it, the doctor will maneuver the needle between the bones of the spine.
- Using a contrast dye, the doctor will confirm the needle is placed in the epidural space. That’s the space between the spine and the spinal cord inside it.
- When the needle is in position, the doctor will inject a solution into the epidural space. The solution contains a steroid medicine, also called corticosteroid, and usually an anesthetic medicine too.
The epidural injection is usually not painful because of the numbing medicine but many people do have mild tenderness for up to a few days after the injection.
In a nerve block, a person will usually rapidly experience numbness with near-complete pain relief.
In some people back pain is caused by a damaged disc between spinal bones, or vertebrae. In discography, a doctor injects contrast dye into a spinal disc. The doctor then observes the disc on an X-ray video screen. If contrast dye leaks out of the disc, and the person’s usual back pain occurs, the test is considered positive. Clinical studies, however, have not shown that discography is always a helpful test.
