An epidural injection is an interventional pain management treatment that delivers pain medicine into the epidural space in your spine. The epidural space is a fat-filled area of your spine that protects your spinal cord and spinal nerves.

Epidural injections available at Southern Idaho Pain Institute include:

• Caudal epidural steroid injections (lower back)
• Lumbar epidural steroid injections (lower back)
• Lumbar transforaminal epidural steroid injections (lower back)
• Cervical transforaminal epidural steroid injections (neck)
• Cervical epidural steroid injections (neck)

The epidural injection for your neck or back typically contains a local anesthetic that numbs the area, providing instant pain relief and a corticosteroid to reduce inflammation and swelling.

Your provider at Southern Idaho Pain Institute determines if you’re a candidate for an epidural injection after a pain management consultation. The team focuses on finding the source of your discomfort to provide the most effective treatment.

You may benefit from an epidural injection if you have pain that radiates into your arms or legs due to problems related to your spine, such as a herniated disc, radiculopathy (pinched spinal nerve), or spinal arthritis.

However, the team only recommends the minimally invasive procedure if oral medications and physical therapy fail to provide significant relief from your pain. 

Your provider at Southern Idaho Pain Institute performs your epidural injection at the practice’s ambulatory surgical center. During the procedure, you lie face down on an X-ray table. 

Your provider may give you medication to help you relax and then injects a numbing medication into the area of your back or neck that requires the epidural. Using X-ray-guided imaging, your provider inserts a needle into your spine and injects the medication. 

You may feel some pressure during the injection but no pain. 

After your epidural injection, the team takes you to the recovery area for monitoring before sending you home. You must arrange to have someone drive you home after an epidural injection and plan to take it easy the rest of the day. 

It can take a few days for the corticosteroid in your epidural injection to work, and your pain may get worse before it gets better. The results of an epidural injection vary. Some people get relief from their pain for a few days or weeks, while others may have pain relief for months.

If you have positive results from an epidural injection, the team at Southern Idaho Pain Institute may repeat the procedure as needed.

To find out if an epidural injection can help your painful back or neck condition, call Southern Idaho Pain Institute or book an appointment online today.