A Few Things You May Need to Remember About Spinal Injections

Spinal Injections

Interventional pain management relies on various procedures for alleviating your pain and improving your overall quality of life. Your health provider often uses interventional pain treatment when conservative treatments are ineffective. The combination of minimally invasive therapies that your interventional pain specialist Houston chooses will depend on the underlying pain type, the discomfort’s severity, and potential risks and complications. One popular interventional pain management solution to pain-producing conditions and injuries is injections.

A common area of the body that your doctor may inject with anti-inflammatory medications is your spine. The treatment can be vital for long-lasting pain relief against back problems such as failed back surgery syndrome (FBSS), spinal stenosis, and spinal disc herniation. FBSS is not an actual syndrome but a term referring to the unexplained persistent pain you experience in your back or leg after surgery.

Consequently, below are a few things to know and remember about spinal injections as a leading technique of interventional pain management.

Bad candidates for spinal injections

Before you seek spinal injections to relieve your back pain and discomfort, ensure that you first extensively consult with your healthcare giver. Your health specialist has the knowledge and experience to advise you about the potential risks, complications, and benefits of the different spinal injections.

Generally, you may not be the right candidate for spinal injections when the underlying cause of your pain is trauma, infection, or cancer-related.

Moreover, spinal injections for interventional pain management may not be for you if you have Cauda equina syndrome (CES). CES is a severe condition that results from the exertion of intense pressure on or dysfunction of the collection of nerve roots at the spinal cord’s end.

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Also, the benefits of spinal injections may be less than the risks when you have a weaker immune system, poorly controlled high blood sugar levels, or severe bleeding disorders.

Use of certain medications

Before a spinal injection procedure, your doctor may request that you abandon using specific types of medications. You may not use the drugs for several hours or days before the treatment.

A medication you may have to stop using for a while is blood thinners. Discuss with your doctor when you can resume using the drugs after injections.

Additionally, your doctor will recommend the approach to your use of nonsteroidal anti-inflammatory drugs (NSAIDs) like aspirin and ibuprofen.

NSAIDs work like steroids but do not leave you with the effects of steroids.

The pain level of spinal injections

Your health provider will inject you with a local aesthetic, essential for numbing the injection location on your back.

Alternatively, your doctor may administer procedural sedation into your body to calm you before injections. You may have to take the sedative drug orally, via swallowing or inhalation, or through intravenous therapy (IV). IV therapy introduces sedation directly into your bloodstream via your veins.

Therefore, spinal injections do not involve much pain. You may only experience mild to moderate discomfort levels before and after injection.

After treatment, your doctor may restrict you for one or two days from physically demanding activities that may worsen your condition and delay the positive effects of the treatment.

Contact William Yancey, MD, today to schedule a consultation with an interventional pain specialist.

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