The spine is an essential part of the body and the nervous system. It supports your upper body and allows you to stand and walk straight, twist, and bend. It also protects the spinal cord, which has nerves to transmit signals to and from your brain and different body parts. Therefore, taking care of it and ensuring it is in the best condition is essential. However, with so many functions, the spine suffers issues like spinal stenosis, spondyloisthesis, herniated discs, cervical radiculopathy, facet syndrome, and sciatica. While spinal surgery is a common and effective treatment for these issues, you might want to try the non-surgical way. Spinal injections are among the most popular non-surgical spinal treatments that work when surgeries have failed or if you don’t want to undergo the pain and downtime related to surgeries. There are different alternatives depending on your issue and goals.
Caudal Steroid Injection
Professionals inject this at the bottom of your neck near the tailbone (coccyx). Since it is a steroid injection, it targets the spinal nerves. The needle accesses the sacral hiatus above the coccyx. The professional injects the steroid directly into pinched nerves, which helps deal with chronic lower back pain or pain in your legs. While you might experience mild relief immediately after the procedure, the medication lasts a few days to deliver full pain relief.
Cervical Epidural Steroid Injection
Doctors administer this injection to your neck. The specialist uses the needle to access your epidural space using fluoroscopic guidance. The steroid helps reduce inflammation and offer pain relief, restoring proper spinal function and activities. It mostly focuses on pain and inflammation in the neck, arms, and shoulders caused by one or several compressed nerves in your upper spine. The main issues causing these issues are spinal stenosis and herniated discs. This injection takes around a week to offer full relief.
Facet Joint Injections
This is mainly used if pain comes from the facet joints between vertebrates. Inflammation in those joints could result in pain in your neck, back, and legs. The pain and inflammation can result from osteoarthritis, rheumatoid arthritis, spinal trauma, infection, pinched nerves, or septic arthritis. Doctors use steroids like cortisone, injected directly into the affected joints. They use ultrasound imaging to ensure they deliver the medication to the right location and avoid injuries or nerve damage. This injection can also act as a diagnosis method to identify the source of your pain. It can offer spinal joint pain relief for around six to 18 months.
Lumbar Epidural Steroid Injection
Professionals administer this injection in your lower back, also known as the lumbar region. This region is vulnerable to compressed or pinched nerves. Your specialist will give the injection in the epidural space, allowing it to get to the nerve canal to target the pinched nerves. It can alleviate pain in your lower back or legs. Doctors use fluoroscopy, an advanced X-ray imaging technology, to guide the injection.
Lumbar Transforaminal Epidural Steroid Injection
As the name suggests, this injection also happens in the lumbar region. However, the injection goes to the foramen instead of targeting the nerve canal. That is an opening on your spine’s side. This location allows the injection to deliver medication near the nerve root. That helps minimize swelling in that location, delivering long-term pain relief, especially when paired with therapy and exercise. Doctors use this injection to treat lower back and general back pains. They also use it a lot in treating sciatica pain. It takes a few days for the medication to start working.
Medial Branch Block
Medial branch nerves transmit pain messages to the brain from your facet joints. Medial branch block injection administers anesthesia near our medial branch nerve. That temporarily blocks or numbs the pain signals going to your brain, causing pain in the legs or arms. That makes this injection effective as a therapeutic or diagnostic method. Diagnostic injections are also known as selective nerve root blocks. If the pain disappears after the medication administration, the doctor confirms that the pain results from your facet joints. They then recommend radiofrequency rhizotomy for longer-term pain relief.
Platelet Rich Plasma
This is a natural treatment that doctors get from your blood, meaning you will not experience any allergies or reactions. The doctor begins by drawing blood from your arm and then isolates the platelet-rich plasma using a centrifuge. The platelets have healing proteins that can help heal and regenerate ligaments
and tendons. The doctor then injects the plasma into your affected site, and it helps release around three to five times more growth factors than regular blood. That lets the growth factors increase the proliferation of your repetitive cells. It helps address issues like degenerative disc disease, sacroiliac joint pain, bulging disks, facet joint pain, and spondylosis. You might need one to three sets of PRP treatments for long-term pain relief, each after four to six weeks.
Sacroiliac Joint Steroid Injection
Pain in the sacroiliac joint is a major source of lower back and hip pain. Your doctor will administer the injection in the joint connecting your hip and sacrum. Specialists mostly use it to treat lower back pain resulting from trauma, inflammatory arthritis, pregnancy, joint asymmetry, old age, and spinal surgery. They can also use it to diagnose the cause of your back and hip pain. The anesthesia used in the procedure allows immediate but temporary relief. While that wears off, you will experience long-term pain and inflammation relief after a few days.
Trigger Point Injections
This injection is mostly used in conjunction with other therapies like muscle relaxants. Trigger points are muscle knots that spread pain to places like your legs and arms. These knots are usually tight and tender to the touch. These injections contain cortisone. This medication temporarily relaxes your muscles and allows more blood to get to your muscles. Increased blood flow promotes healing and lets your muscles stretch and strengthen. They might also have Botox, an anesthetic, or combined medications. Your doctor might suggest dry needling, which involves a needle with no medication delivered to the muscles. While its results are temporary, you can prolong them using stretching exercises and physical therapy.
Get Trustworthy Professional Help Today
With over two decades of award-winning experience, Dr. Alicia Carter Miami is dedicated to offering high-quality, safe, and effective non-surgical treatments for orthopedic and spine conditions. Contact Regenerative Medicine and Orthopedics or complete an online patient form for inquiries and appointments.