The surgeon uses fluoroscopy x-ray to help locate the specific nerve root. A needle is inserted into the area and the medication and an anesthetic are injected.
The injection takes just several minutes. After the injection, the patient is monitored for minutes and then released. Most patients start noticing pain relief after the third to seventh day, which can last weeks or months. Please take your regularly scheduled blood pressure, heart, asthma, long-acting narcotic and nerve pain medications with sips of water as you normally would. If you have diabetes, take half of your normal dosage and bring your insulin with you. Be sure to discontinue aspirin products and any other blood thinners as instructed.
After you arrive, you will be asked to sign-in and complete any paperwork as needed. You will then be taken to the preoperative area. At this time, a nurse will ask you some medical questions and have you sign your consent forms. Inform the staff of any allergies, especially to Betadine or Iodine. You may be asked to change into a gown. An assistant will take your vital signs and an IV may be started in order to provide pain relief and relaxation.
The physician and nurse will talk to you before your procedure. In certain cases, an anesthesiologist may also be utilized. You will then be positioned and the injection sites will be prepped. Your pain management physician will perform the procedure. Medications may be administered before and during your procedure to help you relax and provide pain relief. You may doze off during this time. Afterward, bandages will be applied as needed. A medication, typically, an anesthetic or anesthetic with steroid is administered near the spinal nerve as it exits the intervertebral foramen bony opening between adjacent vertebrae.
The medication reduces inflammation and numbs the pain transmitted by the nerve. A selective nerve root block injection helps reduce inflammation and numb the pain transmitted by a specific spinal nerve root. Lumbar Steroid Injection. Radiofrequency Neurotomy. When used for treatment purposes, steroids are usually mixed with anesthetics or used alone in selective nerve root block injections. Steroids in nerve blocks work by a combination of the following mechanisms 1 :.
Before administering the injection, the skin over the treatment site is cleaned to prevent infection. Usually, a small amount of contrast dye is injected first in order to identify if the needle is in the proper location near the target nerve and to avoid injecting into a blood vessel 1. Due to anatomic variations in every patient, fluoroscopy or ultrasound guidance is almost always used to locate the nerve. The injection may recreate the usual pain that has been experienced by the patient.
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