NYC Cervical Epidural Steroid Neck Injection Doctors

The doctors of Manhattan Pain and Sports Associates offer cervical epidural steroid injection to place pain medication right where it’s needed: in your neck where you’re likely feeling the pain. The cervical epidural steroid  injection delivers medicine to affected vertebrae in your spine, which is why it’s so important to get an accurate diagnosis. Your NYC pain management specialist  know exactly where to place the needle to relieve your pain.

Cervical Epidural Steroid Injection

Cervical pain is literally a pain in your neck. If one of the nerves exiting your cervical spine is pinched, you also may feel shoulder, arm and hand pain. The results of a nerve impingement in your neck can also translate to muscle weakness or numbness in your arms and hands. A cervical spine issue can lead to all of these symptoms…and more.

If you’re in Manhattan, schedule an appointment with a top pain management specialist. You need an accurate diagnosis of your neck pain before you can receive treatment. A pain management doctor can run tests to confirm an accurate diagnosis. If an inflamed nerve in your neck is responsible for your pain, then one solution is a cervical epidural steroid injection.

Getting Help for Your Pain

Your doctor may want you to try more conservative treatments first. But if your pain doesn’t disappear after a period of rest, ice and over-the-counter anti-inflammatories like ibuprofen, you can still get a non-invasive pain relief treatment. A cervical epidural steroid injection can ease your pain and help heal your body for a number of conditions, including:

A cervical epidural steroid injection actually has two components:

  1. A local anesthetic to ease short-term pain
  2. A steroid to reduce inflammation and deliver long-term pain relief

Together, these medications help you return to your normal life, pain-free. An epidural steroid injection is not a miracle cure, though. While everyone responds differently, the pain relief normally lasts three or four months. You can get periodic injections, as needed.

The Cervical Epidural Steroid Injection Treatment

To prepare you for the injection, your pain management doctor cleans the injection point and uses a local anesthetic to make the injection tolerable. You may get some type of sedation to ease your anxiety. You lay face-down on an X-ray table. The doctor uses an X-ray or fluoroscope to find the exact spot to inject the medication. He also may inject dye into the area to better facilitate the injection.

The needle does not go into your spine, but into the surrounding tissue called the epidural layer. It’s there that the medicine can spread out and do its work. After the injection, you have to stay in the doctor’s office for about a half hour. Your pain should disappear in that time, due to the anesthetic.

After the anesthetic wears off in several hours, your cervical pain may return. It can take up to a week for the steroid medication to start reducing the inflammation that’s causing you pain. But the pain-relieving effect of the steroids should continue for three months or longer. Meanwhile, without the inflamed nerves in your spine, your body can heal.

Manhattan Pain and Sports Associates
51 East 25th St, 4th Floor, Ste B
New York, NY 10010
(212) 533-3954