Steroid Injections Specialist

What are steroid injections?

Steroids — typically cortisone — are some of the most powerful anti-inflammatory drugs available. Steroid injections can reduce inflammation when other treatments haven’t succeeded.

While you can take steroids orally, they aren’t as effective as an injection directly into the tissues. Oral steroid medication can also cause adverse effects, especially if taken long-term.

In addition to the steroids, your injection could also contain a local anesthetic. This numbing medicine takes all feeling away, including pain, in the treatment area. The effects don’t last long — a few hours in most cases — but give you a much-needed break from severe pain.

What can steroid injections treat?

Steroid injections are beneficial for many musculoskeletal conditions, including:

• Herniated or bulging discs
• Facial pain (trigeminal and occipital neuralgia)
• Sacroiliitis
• Whiplash
• Sciatica
• Degenerative disc disease
• Facet joint arthritis
• Spinal stenosis
• Radiculopathy
• Arthritis
• Carpal tunnel syndrome
• Tendinitis

Metro Anesthesia & Pain Management doesn’t normally use steroid injections as a front-line treatment for these conditions. For most patients, conservative approaches involving physical therapy effectively reduce or eliminate pain. 

However, if initial treatments fail to relieve your symptoms, steroid injections could be the next step.

What types of steroid injections might I need?

Your provider can inject the steroid medication into your spine for back and neck pain and some forms of arm and leg pain. The epidural space surrounds your spinal cord, providing an ideal area to deliver the steroids for optimal effect.

Neck and arm pain require a cervical epidural injection, while upper back pain benefits from a thoracic epidural. A lumbar epidural is a steroid injection in your lower back. Lower back pain could also benefit from sacral or sacroiliac joint injections.

Metro Anesthesia & Pain Management also offers small, intermediate, and large joint injections.

What happens when I have a steroid injection?

Steroid injections are usually an in-office procedure at Metro Anesthesia & Pain Management. This is far more convenient and saves patients money on co-pays and deductibles.

The needles your provider uses are very fine, so they don’t cause much pain. Your provider numbs the skin before your steroid injection to make sure you’re comfortable throughout the procedure.

Your provider uses cutting-edge image guidance technology to view the needle as they inject the steroids. This ensures that the needle doesn’t cause unnecessary tissue damage and that the medication goes to exactly the right place.

You might find you only require one steroid injection, but a course of injections offers the best results for most patients. Many people experience significant relief from their pain for six months and sometimes longer.

For more information on steroid injections and how they can help you, call Metro Anesthesia & Pain Management today or book an appointment online.