To Your Health March, 2013 (Vol. 07, Issue 03)

Another Reason to Avoid Epidural Steroids

By Editorial Staff

While the uproar surrounding tainted steroid injections causing fungal meningitis has left the mainstream news after months on the front pages, hundreds of reported illnesses and far too many deaths, it's high time for a reminder of why epidural steroids – tainted or not – shouldn't be so commonly prescribed for back pain.

 

According to a study in the research journal Spine, which compared spine patients who received epidural injections to patients who did not receive injections, steroids "were associated with significantly less improvement at 4 years among all patients with spinal stenosis." In other words, patients who received the injections were in worse shape after four years than patients who did not receive injections – regardless of whether either type of patient ultimately underwent surgery to "relieve" their pain. Not exactly an endorsement of epidural steroid injections or surgery. What's more, patients in both groups had similar initial symptoms / pain scores, dispelling the notion that patients who received injections had worse initial pain or a worse condition than non-injected patients.

Spinal stenosis is a narrowing of the open spaces in the spine. As you might expect, this can put pressure on the spinal cord and nerves, leading to neck or back pain. It is most commonly caused by wear and tear over time, which puts you at higher risk as you get older (particularly over age 50 or so).

Spinal stenosis and other conditions that cause back pain and related symptoms often don't require medication, injections or surgery. 

So what should you do?

The above article is re-posted from To Your Health, they suggest starting with seeing a Chiropractor. That is a good place to start and access the severity of your spinal condition. For many this will help manage the pain by relieving some of the pressure on the nerves. However, when the condition continues to degenerate as part of the progressive process, and pain and/or symptoms such as radiating nerve pain or loss of sensation is becoming more prevalent - that is when it is time to look into other options such as those provided by My Spine Solution and German Spine Specialists. Solutions that are non-fusion interventions but more than discectomies, these are permanent nerve compression relieving solutions that restore the spine to proper biomechanics and pain relief.

For more information go to our web site:  MySpineSolution.com