Neck and Back pain accounts for the top three contributors to chronic pain in most American adults. If you suffer from consistent spine-related pain, epidural steroid injections can offer instant and lasting pain relief. At Rio Grande Pain Team, Dr. Dennis Slavin, MD, focuses on ultrasound-guided epidural steroid injection in McAllen that will help you restore and improve your everyday life quality. If you have any queries or concerns about the practice, schedule an appointment with the McAllen or Weslaco office through mobile or book online.
What Is an Epidural Steroid Injection?
The epidural steroid injection contains a local anesthetic, for instance, lidocaine and a corticosteroid. Dr. Slavin injects you with these drugs in the nerves surrounding the epidural space in the area you’re experiencing pain. These medications go to the targeted nerves, interacting with them to relieve you of the pain.
The corticosteroid drug reduces and removes inflammation, hence acting as a lasting relief for the pain. On the other hand, the local anesthetic serves as temporary but instant pain relief. The epidural steroid injection aims at giving you complete pain relief so that you can resume your daily activities and begin physical therapy to help maintain lasting pain relief.
Who Is the Right Candidate for Epidural Steroid Injection?
If you experience consistent pain in your back, legs, arms, and neck due to a damaged or pinched nerve, you can be the right candidate for an epidural steroid injection. Some of the conditions that can be addressed using this condition include spinal stenosis, degenerative disc disease, sciatica, herniated disc, and spondylolisthesis.
If you have any of the above conditions, Dr. Slavin doesn’t get you through an epidural steroid injection right away. He first recommends treatments such as therapeutic massage, exercise, physical therapy, and nonsteroidal anti-inflammatory drugs (NSAIDs). In case these treatments are not effective in relieving you of the pain, you are the right candidate for an epidural steroid injection.
What to Expect With an Epidural Steroid Injection
At Rio Grande Pain Team, the epidural steroid injections are performed in-office, where the patient feels comfortable and receives first-hand medical attention from Dr. Slavin and his team. This treatment is performed under image-guided fluoroscopy X-ray scans. Using fluoroscopy, Dr. Slavin visualizes the patient’s epidural space to ensure the precise positioning of the needle.
Dr. Slavin will request you to lie face down to allow him to inject the local anesthetic to the targeted area. This injection will make the area numb, after which he will inject a contrasting dye to the epidural space for easy visibility of the needle under the X-ray scan. Once Dr. Slavin gets the needle to the right position, he injects the drugs into the target nerves.
Since the epidural injection is minimally-invasive, you can resume your daily activities right away. But your provider must monitor how you respond to treatment for a short while before releasing you.
In conclusion, the Rio Grande Pain Team is a comprehensive pain management center offering some of the most advanced pain relief treatments. Do not let chronic pain take a toll on your overall health and wellness anymore. Click or call to request an appointment at Rio Grande Pain Team today.
