Tag Archives: lumbar epidural injection

Is it Necessary to have Sedation for a Lumbar Epidural Injection?

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Every day, thousands of epidural steroid injections are performed by pain management doctors in the US. These procedures are excellent at providing significant pain relief for Sciatica Treatment Phoenixsciatica and helping avoid surgery while improving function and minimizing the amount of narcotic medications necessary to attain relief.

These injections are typically performed in a procedure room or an ambulatory surgery center. Is sedation necessary for epidural steroid injections?

In a new study with over 5000 patients out of the Mayo Clinic, researchers looked at this question. Epidural steroid injections were performed over 99.9% without sedation, and patient satisfaction was then evaluated. The results of the injections showed substantial pain relief, similar to the average of outcomes seen in most studies.

In addition, over half of the patients in the study stated they would recommend having the injections performed without sedation.

The outcome of this study should not be a conclusion that no one needs sedation for epidural injections. In contrast, if an individual has claustrophobia or substantial anxiety epidural steroid injectionover needles, sedation may be very beneficial.

In addition, if an individual has had a good experience before with sedation medicines, it is prudent to offer that again. Additionally, sedation does not have to come in the form of intravenous medication. While that is most commonly used, the AZ pain management doctor may simply prescribe oral medication such as Valium to be taken half an hour prior to the procedure.

If you or a loved one is suffering from sciatica due to a herniated disc or spinal stenosis, then epidural steroid injections may be extremely helpful. This may include a caudal injection, transforaminal variety or the interlaminar type of epidural.

Arizona Pain Specialists offers Board Certified and Award-Winning pain management doctors at four locations across tPain doctors Phoenixhe Valley. Over 50 insurance plans are accepted including Medicare, Medicaid, Personal-injury, Worker’s Compensation and self-pay.

For more information and scheduling at the leading pain management clinics in Phoenix, call today at 602-507-6550.

Is Your Hip Pain Actually Coming from the Hip or Low Back?

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Is my pain coming from my hip on my back?

Individuals who are experiencing hip pain are often certain that the hip is to blame. At times though, the lumbar spine is actually the culprit.  The reason is that spinal stenosis may cause referred pain into the area. Spinal stenosis represents a condition that may occur with age.

As individuals age, arthritis develops in the spine and soft tissue and bony overgrowth may

Spinal Stenosis

Spinal Stenosis

start to compress nerve roots.  We don’t really want or need this overgrowth of tissue and bone, but the body sees it as a way to stabilize arthritic joints as it can no longer make enough cartilage to sustain the joint surface.  The end result is that the nerve roots as they come out of the spine have less room to exit, and start to get pinched.

This can lead to buttock and hip area pain and pain that radiates down into the thigh.  As a result, people may think they’re having hip pain when in actuality it may be due to spinal stenosis.

How does the doctor tell the difference? Well this comes down to history, physical examination, imaging studies and diagnostic testing.  If a person has a lot of pain with activity and x-rays show significant hip arthritis and they have tenderness right over the joint and pain with range of motion of the hip, that’s pretty much a slam dunk diagnosis for hip arthritis pain.

One other thing that can be done as both a diagnostic and a therapeutic test is to inject the arthritic hip with numbing medicine and steroid medication. This should provide immediate relief to the pain as well as provide a few weeks to months of pain relief due to the steroid medication.  If it is not as clear-cut on the workup that the hip is the culprit, the injection into the hip can be performed as a diagnostic test to see how much pain relief is actually achieved.

Hip painIf 50% pain relief is achieved, it may be that there’s an overlap between arthritis of the hip and spinal stenosis. They made simply be both occurring at the same time.  In addition to this, lumbar epidural injections for the spinal stenosis may be in order to obtain the additional pain relief needed.

So it is important to understand that pain in the hip does not necessarily mean the person has a hip joint problem. Seeing pain management doctors in Arizona can help delineate the problem’s source and then treat it most effectively.

If you have significant hip pain in Arizona, come see the best pain management clinics in the valley. Arizona Pain Specialists has Double Board Certified pain management doctors who are experts in the work up of hip pain.  These Arizona pain management clinics have several locations serving the whole valley including Phoenix, Scottsdale, Mesa, Glendale, Chandler, Tempe and more.

Call 602-507-6550 today for schedule.

Spinal Stenosis Treatment with Epidural Steroid Injections

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Spinal stenosis affects millions of Americans, and epidural steroid injections represent an integral nonsurgical treatment. They help patients avoid surgery for stenosis frequently, and may be repeated multiple times a year with typical success.

Dr. Greene explains epidural injections in this video. If you suffer from spinal stenosis, Arizona Pain Specialists can help. Their Arizona pain doctors have performed thousands of epidural injections, and they have AZ pain center locations throughout the Valley. Call (602) 507-6550 for appointments.