Living with excessive back or joint pain can limit mobility and hinder everyday tasks. The source of the pain may be the result of injury or the deterioration of muscles, bone, discs, or nerves. As the treating physician, you may recommend conservative therapies such as rest, analgesics, and exercise to help relieve the pain. In some cases, more aggressive treatment options are necessary to alleviate the pain.
As a healthcare provider, you may order a pain management procedure from Inland Imaging. This may include diagnostic and therapeutic spinal injections or minimally invasive pain procedures that provide greater comfort, fewer complications, and less risk than general surgery.
Inland Imaging offers joint injections, epidural steroid injections, and intercostal nerve blocks may be ordered to reduce inflammation within a specific joint or alleviate pain.
Injections include the use of a steroid medicine to decrease joint inflammation and local anesthetic to numb the injection site. Immediate pain relief is to be expected immediately after the injection as the local anesthetic is still in place. However, long-term relief provided by the steroid may take 10-14 days before the benefits of the injection are felt.
After a pain management procedure, a patient should arrange for a ride home and rest for the remainder of the day. Generally, moderate and normal activity can resume the following day.
For many patients, more than one injection is often needed for pain relief. Your patient should have a follow-up exam scheduled to evaluate if another injection is needed.