Steroid Usage for Spinal Stenosis Treatment

Lumbar spinal stenosis is a debilitating condition that usually occurs in the elderly. The use of steroids to treat spinal stenosis should be part of a total rehabilitation regime, according to ncbi.nlm.nih.gov.

Pain Management

• Epidural steroid injections are used to help reduce the pain caused by lumbar spinal stenosis. Steroids help by reducing inflammation and take several days to start working.

Purpose

• Epidural steroid injections are administered for the treatment of leg pain, not back pain, webmd.com reports.

Procedure

• A doctor injects the steroids into the patient's back just outside the actual spinal column. A local anesthetic is administered to alleviate pain until the steroids take effect, according to webmd.com.

Treatment Success

• A steroid injection may alleviate pain for a period of time lasting from two or three weeks to three months, www.webmd.com reports.

Side Effects

• Common side effects include dizziness, nausea, vomiting, headache and soreness around the injection site. Rare side effects include nerve injury, meningitis and infection.

Limitations

• If lumbar spinal stenosis existed at birth, webmd.com reports that epidural steroid injections will not work.