The Truth Behind Epidural Injections

Picture this, you go out to the park with your 5 y.o child, as they are running toward you filled with excitement and laughter you go to pick them up. As soon as you reach down to pick them up you feel a sharp pain and spasm that is unfortunately all too familiar to you. The pain is intense, shooting down the back of your leg. You decide to seek help yet again, and after an MRI a disc herniation is confirmed. The doctor suggests an epidural injection to help “solve” the back pain due to the herniation.

This is all too familiar for a vast amount of people. Low back pain due to disc herniations is something that occurs often and can occur in anyone. While a lot of people fall on the fence of either pro-injection or anti-injection it is a little more nuanced than that. In a 2022 review of epidural injections for low back pain, the article showed that even though there is no consensus on the use of epidural injections, they do seem to be beneficial in symptom alleviation in the short term. However, long-term benefits of epidurals are still needed.

What does this tell us?

First and foremost, it should be understood that epidural injections are simply a method to control symptoms and not solve the issue at hand i.e. disc herniations. After the injection is done and you feel better, the herniation is still there. But if a patient is in severe pain, unable to even go through rehab exercises or other types of conservative care then an epidural may be necessary to help the patient go through a successful conservative program. If more patients had better education on their lower back pain, why they have it, what it means for them, and what the options are it would help patients take a better approach to solving their low back pain.

What can we do about it?

At enhanced chiropractic, working with many patients with disc-related problems i.e. bulges and herniations, we have learned how and when necessary to have these discussions with our patients as to whether it will be beneficial to proceed with an epidural injection. It depends on our patient's current pain level, outcome measurements, functional abilities, and of course MRI findings. Some of our patients get the epidural injection and then continue treatment with us to prevent any future flare-ups, some patients decide to forego the injection completely. Whatever the case, whatever the decision we always just make sure our patients have all current and correct research and studies, but also have had all proper discussions with their other medical providers to come to a decision that they are happy with and can sleep knowing they made the right decision for them.

Suffering from pains related to disc bulges or herniations? Book your free discovery visit now, and see how we can help resolve your pain.