ESIs stands for Epidural Steroid Injections or more commonly referred to as Spinal steroid injections are commonly used for treatment of many kinds of low back and leg pain. Their use for treatment of this problem dates back to 1950s and they are still integral to managing lower back pain and sciatica with non surgical methods.
The aim of this Spinal steroid injection obviously is relieving pain relief. Many a times, this injection itself may be enough in providing pain relief, though it is more common to use the epidural steroid injection in conjunction with a complete rehab program in order for it to work effectively and in providing additional benefits.
Many of the practitioners agree with the fact that the effects of this injection are mostly temporary, that is it provides pain relief for a duration which ranges between a week’s time till about a year. Still an epidural may prove to be very good in treatment of a patient who is having acute leg and/ or back pain.
More importantly, an epidural injection may be capable enough in providing adequate relief from pain in allowing patients to move forward with the rehabilitative program of exercising and stretching. In case of the first injection proving effective in treatment of the patients’ pain, this injection may be taken thrice in a single year’s time period.
Over and above the lumbar region (the low back), these spinal steroid injections have also successfully been used for treatment of pain which many experience in their neck also called the cervical region in addition to mid spine also called the thoracic region.
The stenosis of Lumbar spine is a problem that causes pain to radiate from lower spine right down to hips and even down the whole leg. These ESIs (Epidural steroid injections) are basically used to treat this extreme leg pain precisely than the treatment of back pain caused by lumbar spinal stenosis.
These ESIs, in case of Lumbar spine stenosis provide relief for a short duration of around 2 to 3 weeks in most cases. Research is still going on to find exactly how effective this injection is in the long run. In many successful cases, patients getting sufficient pain relief from this injection generally end up delaying or cancelling their plans of getting surgery. Usage of these injections can only give relief from the symptoms as well as reduce the inflammation cause by this problem but cannot cure this problem of spinal stenosis.
Spinal steroid injections are efficient in pain relief as they are effective in delivering medication very near and even directly to where the pain is generated from. While painkillers and oral steroids have a less focused and dispersed impact in addition to having side effects as well.
