Pain Management?
Pain Management involves a variety of medical measures/treatments to try to resolve or alleviate pain. This can include medications, injections, surgical implants, biofeedback and more.
The most common method of pain management treatment are epidural steroid injections, though other injections are also done. Epidural injections inject a corticosteroid, anti-inflammatory, chemical into the spinal canal, near the inflamed nerve root. The usual cause of an inflamed nerve root is a spinal disc, which is herniated. The idea is to reduce the inflammatory component of your pain.
Inflammation is a chemical process, that includes redness, swelling, heat, pain, and sometimes, loss of function of the painful area. Corticosteroids are the most potent anti-inflammatory medication we have. They are more potent than what we commonly term, non-steroidal anti-inflammatory drugs, or NSAID’s, such as over-the-counter aspirin, Aleve, Advil, Motrin, ibruprofen, and all the other prescription NSAID’s.
I treat many patients who do not improve with pain management. And most of these people improve with my treatment. There are, however, some people with such severe spinal pathology, that no one can help them. And, certainly, there are many people I cannot help.
But, the unfortunate reality is that the way medicine is practiced, today, many people are sent to pain management inappropriately, and prematurely, without having been offered the most effective treatment for herniated discs and pinched nerves. The majority of patients that I see, who fail pain management, should be treated with a physical approach because they have an anatomical problem. That specific, most effective treatment, is spinal decompression treatment. Improving the anatomical cause of the pain, is much preferable to just injecting an anti-inflammatory chemical to reduce the inflammatory consequence of the anatomical problem.
If you have a disc and nerve problem, I would like to help you. Please call 404-558-4015.