I am a Nurse Practitioner and though I work with many different patients in my job, I also suffer from Significant back problems., that are most like going to require surgery. My Orthopedic doctor recommended a trans-foraminal steroid injection as a means to possible help decrease the pain I was having as a result of my disease.

Trans foraminal Epidural Injections are done for primarily one reason and that is to see if an inflammatory process within the spine or area of the problem is responsible for the pain. If the patient receives pain relief then surgery or other invasive treatments may be avoided for quite some time as some patients get pain relief from these injections for a year or more at a time.

If the pain did not go away following the procedure then, most likely the problem is "mechanical" meaning inflammation is not the cause, the cause is usually then related to the nerve or nerves being compressed or squeezed between bones in the spine. At this time, many doctors will proceed to surgery or another treatment to relieve the pain.

I just want to mention to make sure your procedure was either performed by your own physician or a reputable clinic familiar with these procedures for they may additionally fail it they are not performed correctly.

Hope this helps some. have a great day!