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Injections for Back Pain |

Injections for Back Pain, Health Channel

How many shots can a patient get for back pain? Dr. Jose Mena, Interventional Spine Specialist with Miami Orthopedics and Sports Medicine Institute, explains how many injections a patient can receive for treatment, and if there is a rule about this.

Transcript

Injections for Back Pain, Health Channel

Now when it comes to how many shots of patient gets is there a limit how many they can okay in terms of we go base on onion on literature so typically that’s a very good question that we get all the time statistically speaking when we’re talking about the epidural injection it takes one point seven injections per patient for them to feel better but we do one and we see how the patient responds length so our main important thing will be it just immediately after the patient undergoes the procedure they should get relief that’s the local anesthetic component from the injection then the local anesthetic wears down and normally the steroids start kicking in within two days up to two weeks from the injection that’s when we go ahead and we see the patient back two weeks after the injection just to reassess if the patient tells us that they are feeling great obviously that’s that’s the end of it now the patient tells us I feel great but not where I want right we go ahead and we can proceed with a second injection how far in between two to three weeks from there from the prior injection is just for the cumulative effect of the steroid now and in in in some patients they might get three injections it can happen but it we don’t have like a set rule that we have to do three injections that some some people might hear now if the patient comes back and they tell me I got great improvement for a day or two but now my pain came back I know that that they said that that’s where the right area where the injection was done but the the steroid itself didn’t take care of the inflammation and long term very likely if I do a second a third a fourth a tenth injection we’re gonna achieve an outcomes those are the patient that we might seek a surgical consultation for for those they might benefit from that also we look at time so let’s say best-case scenario one or two injections give you two months worth of relief again that’s not impacting your quality of life that’s affecting your quality of life and those patients they might advisable more of a surgical intervention we look more for a six-month mark or more for those patients that we can repeat the injections afterwards so in in so that’s why the famous number about three to four injections a year will be available taking into consideration the the six-month smart helping them out and the the patient’s agreeable all that beer okay with it is it there they don’t want to pursue any surgical intervention and they just want to take it they’re happy living with it and they are and they are able to have a functional life you

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