NEW YORK (Reuters Health) - A new study suggests that injections of steroids or arthritis drugs in the spine may not provide much extra relief for people with chronic back and leg pain due to nerve damage. The drug injections also didn't increase the risk of infection and other complications, despite some previous safety concerns. It's possible, researchers said, that higher doses of steroids or the anti-arthritis drug etanercept (marketed as Enbrel) may do a better job of easing pain in this notoriously hard-to-treat group of patients. ...

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Good article, but I'm not surprised. Everyone I've ever talked to (and that's alot of people) have said that they NEVER got any relief from the injections, and I never did either -- and I've had quite a few, as i've been thru 3 pain clinics trying to find some relief.

I'm surprised that they're still offering them, since quite a few people have adverse reactions to them along with not getting any results. I guess it's cause the docs get pain SO MUCH money for administering them.

Thanks for posting the article! Take care. Hugs, Lee

I couldn't agree more. It's procedures like that, that keep the shot jock clinics running. The nearby hospital has a pain clinic that is a disgrace. They insist on writing ALL of your scripts and if you are not taking some sort of series of expensive (invassive) treatments, you don't get pain meds. So, once a month you have to go in and get some treatment and it is repeated over and over until the ins. provider refuses to cover it. At that point, they move on to the next treatment, so on and so forth. It takes about 18 months before Medicaid says enough is enough and cuts them off, at which time the patient is dropped and told to come back in a year for a case review. At that point, it starts all over again. In the meantime, you have no pain meds. I know several elderly pain patients whose primary docs dropped them because they were using the clinic for their other meds and not being seen by the primary. I feel blessed to have been cared for by the same sensible pain specialist for the last 11 years. In the early years, he tried several of the treatments. If something didn't help at all after the first try, he wouldn't repeat it. I am rambling. Hugz and prayers, all around.

I know the type of injections I'll not have again: Any TNF inhibitors. I've been through Remicade, Methotrexate, Enbrel, Humira and Simponi. Each time, I've had a horrendous adverse immunologic response. The latest took 8 months to clear my system. When my rheumatologist called, wanting to see me about it, I politely declined. There's no way I'm being injected with yet another medication that has the potential to cause me so many probs.

Agree Bobbi! Now, I have to admit that I have never been injected with any you have listed. But at one time I did check on Enbrel. The side effects alone made me want to run the other way! Sorry you had to go through that. I feel as spine95 does; blessed to have a great SPINAL pain management doctor that I have been with for 12 years. Any and all procedures I have ever had done have helped a great deal. But I think you know my own story. Anyway, my mother is 84 and was having a great deal of sciatic pain for months prior to Christmas. I hooked her up with the same group, she had an MRI, had an ESI and has been great since January! Can the pain come back? Sure it can! But for now she is doing just great. Therefore, I wouldn't say EVERYONE has NEVER had any relief. There are plenty of us out here that have! Count me in, my mother and my husband.

A few more similar articles on Reuters...
http://www.reuters.com/search?blob=spinal+injections

Doc

I have a slightly different perspective....I've read much of the literature on spinal ESI and for the right patient, success rate is 50-60%, or more. Not great but the next step in a non-responsive patient is surgery

They are more effective for those whose pain is greater in the extremity vs. central pain although sometimes are used for exclusively midline pain syndromes (with less success).

They are more of an end-stage procedure in a patient who is otherwise unresponsive to all prior conservative efforts. I personaly have had several all with successful outcome (one was only temporary). And I have ordered 100 or so over the last 24 years with generally good outcomes and patient satisfaction.

I am lucky to have a pretty open relationship with both my PCP and my Ortho surgeon. Both have told me that the steroid injections are mostly diagnostic and are used mainly to find where the problem with the spine is. If it relieves the pain for some people, it`s a bonus. The same can be said for EMG tests. They are not that accurate at determining where and how bad the problem is, but rather if there really is a problem. This helps the doctors know if the patient really is in pain if other tests like x-rays or MRIs do not show something. Disclaimer, your case may be different.

Not to mention the fear of getting arachnoiditis!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!