What is the most common use and when are epidural steroid injections indicated for back pain?
Steroids are anti-inflammatory drugs, so they are only indicated where there are conditions of inflammation. The steroid medication is injected percutaneously into the epidural space in a wide variety of fashions under fluoroscopic guidance. This is a fancy X-ray machine in an operating room where the medication can be placed exactly where the inflammation is believed to be. This fluoroscope also minimizes any of the complications that can occur by placing the needle blindly into the spine. The advantage of delivering epidural steroids is that the physician can deliver a high enough concentration in and around the inflamed area much greater than we could have obtained if the medication was given orally. Epidural steroid injections have been in use since the early 1960’s and have been well studied and well published in the medical literature. They have been proven effective since that time.
