Are Epidural Steroid Injections Safe?

Chronic pain (pain lasting longer than three months) is a significant problem, and as of 2021, almost 21% of adults (51.6 million people) deal with it, and nearly 7% have pain bad enough that it limits their everyday activities. Persistent problems with back pain are among the most common types of chronic pain, and they stem from several reasons.

Steroids are an option to reduce inflammation and relieve chronic pain, and epidural injections in the spine help with many back problems. But because it’s a spinal injection, there are safety concerns. Let’s explore the treatment and its impact on your health by examining how it works, what it treats, and any risk factors.

Residents of Norwood, Anderson, and Westside, Ohio, and Crestview Hills, Kentucky, who seek relief from chronic pain can consult the medical team at Riverhills Neuroscience.

What are epidural steroid injections?

Your spine is a complex joint formed from a network of bones (vertebrae) held together by disks, nerves, and soft tissue. The epidural space runs throughout the spine, located between the outer section of the spinal meninges (dura mater) and the inside part of the vertebral canal, and this is where the treatment works. 

The procedure injects a steroid or corticosteroid into this space to reduce inflammation and irritation that cause chronic pain and allow the nerve time to heal.

What conditions do they treat?

These injections treat a variety of back problems, like:

• Herniated disk: rupture of a spinal disk that slips out of place

• Degenerative disk disease: the wearing down of spinal disks

• Radiculopathy: spine neuropathy in the neck or lower back

• Sciatica: inflammation or irritation of the sciatic nerve

• Spinal stenosis: when the spinal canal narrows in the neck or lower back

Epidural steroid injections offer relief in different parts of the spine, namely the neck (cervical), upper and middle (thoracic), and lower (lumbar) areas.

Are there any risks involved?

The idea of getting an injection in the spine scares people, but while there are possible side effects and some risks, they are both tolerable and short-lasting. After the injections, side effects like dizziness, nausea, headache, flushing or redness in your face, and fainting can happen, but rest and cold therapy help manage them. Serious complications from injections rarely occur, but infections, bleeding, dural puncture, nerve damage, and hypotension (low blood pressure) do happen.

The most common risk is simply a lack of effectiveness; there is a higher risk that you’ll get little or no relief than any of the possible complications listed. The effects on each patient vary; if it doesn’t work, we have other methods to help.

Epidural steroid injections don’t have a high risk of complications, and if you want to see if it helps your back pain, contact the team of doctors at Riverhills Neuroscience today.