What to know about steroid injections?

Corticosteroids are anti-inflammatory medicine used to treat a range of conditions such as joint pain, arthritis, sciatica, and inflammatory bowel syndrome. NJ Spine and Wellness provides most East Brunswick steroid injections to treat painful injuries and conditions, enabling you to get back to your daily activities without experiencing excruciating pain.
Outlined below are all you ought to know about steroid injection.
Ways of injection
The steroid injections are given by professional health care in the following different ways:
- Into a joint known as an intra-articular injection
- Into the muscles known as intramuscular injections
- Into the spine known as an epidural injection
- Into the blood as an intravenous injection
Uses
An injection is given to reduce inflammation in the joints and pain. People with rheumatoid, gout, osteoarthritis, and frozen shoulder, which causes swelling and joint pain, use the injections to alleviate the pain. The injections are used to reduce inflammation of the soft tissues such as:
- Bursitis and plantar fasciitis
- Tendinopathies and herniated disc
- Tennis elbow and spinal stenosis
- Shoulder rotator cuff disorder and foot problems
- Neuromas and nerve compression
- Sciatica and pain in the leg, arm, joint, and neck
Types of steroid injections
The cortisone injections used at NJ Spine and Wellness are as follows:
Articular injections
Joint injections are prepared by aspiration of withdrawing joint fluid and blood. Then they are injected into the knees, shoulder, ankles, and small joints of the arm and foot, followed by booster injection two to four weeks later to relieve the pain effectively.
Trigger point injection
It is done to tendons and into the bursa area surrounding hip, shoulder, and knee joints. These help to relieve pain in the affected areas.
Epidural steroid injections
It is an injection into the epidural space of the lumbar spine to reduce inflammations and pain related to degenerative disc disease, arthritis, sciatica, and spinal stenosis.
Unsuitable patient for steroid injection
If you have had a steroid injection in the last week, you need to wait until six weeks for another injection:
- If you have an allergic reaction to steroids
- Having an infection such as an eye infection
- Recently you had a vaccination
- Pregnant or breastfeeding
- If you have conditions such as epilepsy, diabetes, high blood pressure, and problems with liver, heart, and kidney
- If you are taking other medication such as anticoagulants
Procedure for steroid injection
After evaluating your symptoms and your physician finds that steroids are the best treatment option to alleviate your pain, your physician will inject a steroid solution with the help of fluoroscopy to guide the needle to the correct area.
After injection, you should rest the injected area for one to two days and avoid strenuous activities for five days to enable faster healing.
Consult your steroid injection specialist today
If not properly used, steroids injections can cause side effects such as allergic reactions, skin flushing, high blood sugar levels, and infection. Therefore, it is important to consult your physician before getting a short to determine the type of steroid injection and if you are the best fit for the injection. Book an appointment with a team of experts at NJ Spine and Wellness in New Jersey and get the steroid injection that is best suited for you.