A Look At Steroid Epidurals

What is an epidural injection?

An epidural is an injection (typically steroids) done into the epidural space, which is the layer surrounding your spinal nerves. The purpose of it is to alleviate pain. Epidural Steroids are also the #1 go-to treatment for pain management doctors.   You may be asking yourself “Well if it’s the #1 treatment it must be great, right?” Let’s take a look at the studies…

Study 1: Treatment of Lumbosacral Radiculopathy with Epidural Steroids

• This was a meta-analysis (review of multiple independent studies) evaluating how effective steroid epidurals are in treating low back pain. It concluded that most steroid epidurals can provide relief for 6 weeks but showed no difference when compared to saline at the 3-month mark.
• It also concluded that back pain that has been present for over 6 months is less likely to respond to epidural treatment.

  Study 2: Effect of caudal epidural steroid or saline injection in chronic lumbar radiculopathy: multicentre, blinded, randomized controlled trial

• Concluded that steroid epidurals are not recommended for chronic lumbar radiculopathy due to no statistical improvement being noticed when compared to the saline controls.

 

From these studies, we’ve gathered that while steroid epidurals temporarily decrease low back pain, they are not long-lasting, and the chances of it working decrease if you’ve had back pain for more than 6 months.

  Not satisfied with those results? No worries, let’s take a look at Option #2: Nerve Ablations Looking for a treatment that provides both short and long-term relief, improves the function, is safe, and can help fix the issue? Learn about Dextrose Epidurals.