Chronic, persistent back pain can negatively impact your work, activities, and relationships. It can also interfere with your demeanor and mood as well as that of your loved ones. Moreover, recurrent back pain can make it hard for you to visit medical centers to receive treatments that might help ease your symptoms, like physical therapy. Dr. Hui Kang in Houston offers several effective therapies that can help manage the pain and restore your normal mobility. In this guide, we will explore epidurals and how they help treat chronic back pain.
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What is an Epidural?
An epidural is simply a type of pain-relieving injection that consists of a combination of cortisone and a numbing anesthetic. During the treatment, your healthcare provider will inject the drug into the area around your spinal cord, known as the epidural space. The main purpose of the anesthetic is to provide quick relief while the steroid, cortisone, works later to help reduce the irritation and inflammation causing your chronic back pain.
In most cases, you will feel sore a few days after the epidural. That is why Houston Pain specialists often recommend resting for the rest of the day after your appointment and resuming work and your everyday activities the next day if you feel better. Additionally, you should expect to feel relief from long-term back pain in just 2-5 days after your epidural appointment.
How Do Epidural Injections Relieve Pain?
Over the years, epidural injections have proven to be successful in reducing back pains and inflammation whereas other therapies have been unsuccessful. This is because an epidural steroid injection contains an anesthetic to provide temporary relief from chronic back pain, while long-term relief originates from the effects of the injection’s steroid, cortisone.
The steroid works by decreasing or eliminating back, arm, neck, and leg inflammation caused by compressed spinal nerves. At Houston Pain specialists, we deliver epidurals into the fat-filled area that lies between the protective membrane covering your spinal nerves and spine (epidural space). For most patients, pain relief from back pain normally lasts a maximum of three months.
Although epidural injections don’t actually heal the problem causing your back pain, they are effective and reliable treatment solutions to soothing nerve irritation and reducing inflammation.
Are You an Ideal Candidate for Epidural Injections?
Epidural injections are normally done for both chronic and acute spinal complications that cause low back pain. This treatment is also very effective for short-term and long-term low back pain that is triggered by certain factors that often irritate the nerves running through your nerve root canal and spinal canal. However, epidural injections are not recommended for people suffering from a relatively mild injury or an acute sprain that is more likely to naturally heal by itself.
Conclusion
In some cases, long-term back pain can be concentrated on a single spot, or it may spread throughout your whole body. Nonetheless, it often limits your normal functioning and hinders you from carrying out your day-to-day activities. At Houston Pain Specialists, our medical team provides epidural injections to provide temporary relief for your stubborn back pains. To determine if epidurals are suitable for you, book an appointment online or call the Houston Pain Specialists today.