Epidural Injection

An ‘epidural’ is a therapeutic injection designed to provide relief from pain or inflammation in and around your spinal nerve roots.
This is often accompanied by a CT Scan to help the technician / radiologist guide the injection exactly to the right location.

Preparation

For all therapeutic injections it is important that patients do not eat or drink anything for 4 hours before the procedure.
It is recommended that patients wear loose comfortable clothing (without zippers, buttons, jewellery or metallic accessories)
Patients should arrive 10-15 minutes before the appointment to complete paperwork.
It is important to bring thereferral form.
Patients should notify the Lakes Radiology team of any allergies, existing medications they have.
Patients should advise the Lakes Radiology team if they may be pregnant.
The patient should have someone to drive them home following the procedure.

A cannula will be placed into the patient arm by the technologist or interventional doctor.
The patient will be placed on their stomach or side.
A technician / radiologist will identify the injection position and sterilise the skin with antiseptic
A technician / radiologist will inject a local anaesthetic to numb the area.
The exact position to locate the area may require imaging guidance.
The technician/doctor will then carefully administer the epidural injection.
When the study is finished, the patient will be moved to a chair and monitored for up to an hour to ensure they do not experience any abnormal reactions or side effects

During the injection:

Patients may feel tingling , ‘pins and needles’, pressure or a burning sensation – however this discomfort usually goes once the injection is complete.
If the patient feels sharp pains, they should advise the technician / radiologist immediately.
If an x-ray or CT is performed in conjunction to the injection the patient will be exposed to minimal low-level radiation.

After the injection:

The patient may experience difficulty walking for the first few hours, however this subsides and normal activities should be able to be resumed the next day.
In some situations, the pain may initially feel stronger before it starts to improve and the patientmay have a ‘negative reaction’ such as a headache, hot flush, rash, infection at the injection site, etc.
On rare occasions there can also be bleeding if blood vessels are inadvertently damaged, injury to the nerves at the injection site, and temporary bladder or bowel dysfunction.