Find out how we’re taking extra care—so you don’t have to delay your treatment. Learn More
Your spinal cord has 31 pairs of nerves, each of which connects your brain to a specific area of the rest of your body. When these nerves are squeezed or otherwise inflamed, you can experience pain and numbness in the parts of your body that are connected to those specific nerves.
By injecting local anesthetic at the exact location of these nerves, our spine experts at the Integrated Spine Institute can reduce irritation and swelling which, in turn, reduces or eliminates the pain that you’re experiencing. Nerve root blocks can also be used as a diagnostic tool if traditional imaging has not been able to identify the exact source of your pain.
If you think nerve root blocks could help diagnose or treat your pain, take the first step to finding relief with our free interactive assessment.
The nervous system relies on an intricate collection of nerves to transmit information from your brain and spinal cord out to every other part of your body. When the nerves in your spine become compressed, irritated, or otherwise impacted, it can cause feelings of pain in those areas of the body that the affected nerves are connected to.
When nerve root pairs are irritated, the patient will report symptoms that include:
If an MRI, CT scan, or other traditional imaging is unable to determine the cause of pain, the physicians at Integrated Spine Institute might recommend using a nerve root block at specific nerve pairs. This treatment can identify the source of your pain and provide an accurate diagnosis. If the anesthetic injected at the spine relieves pain in the other part of your body, our experts could also consider using the nerve root block as a short-term treatment option to help you feel better.
Most nerve root pain is caused by another condition that has resulted in compression or even damage to a nerve root or nerve pair. This can lead to pain signals along nerve paths as they branch throughout the body.
The most common conditions that can cause nerve root pain are:
You don’t need to live with nerve root pain. If you think a nerve root block at the Integrated Spine Institute could help you diagnose or treat your pain, confirm your treatment assessment below.
Like many injections used for pain management at the Integrated Spine Institute, nerve root blocks are a low-risk procedure that can be administered easily. These injections help our experts to locate the underlying cause of your pain and can also be an effective treatment to relieve that pain.
Nerve root blocks are often considered when other diagnostic tools, like MRI or CT scans, have failed to localize the source of your pain. If you experience pain relief, the physician expert might consider using nerve root blocks as a treatment. If you have exhausted other methods of conservative treatment like physical therapy or over-the-counter pain management, nerve root blocks could be the right next step for you.
The goal of nerve root blocks is to identify the cause of your pain, then alleviate your pain by numbing the affected nerves with a strong anesthetic or steroid injection. This will block the pain signals and allow you to return to normal daily activities.
Although injecting anesthetic and steroids directly into the nerves that are causing pain can help you feel better, this treatment does not address the actual causes of the nerve pain. Oftentimes, nerve root pain is the result of compression or another spinal condition that has negatively affected the structure of the discs and this will need to be addressed as you also undergo treatment to relieve the immediate pain.
Nerve root blocks can reduce or eliminate pain, both in the back and in the affected extremities, by numbing the specific nerves that are causing the pain. The direct injection of anesthetic medication into the irritated areas will block your brain from receiving the pain signals from the affected nerves.
Nerve root block injections may also include a time-release steroid that is injected with the anesthetic, which serves to reduce the irritation and swelling that is causing your pain. The steroid will release slowly, and could provide pain relief for anywhere from two weeks to several months. Even short-term pain relief can be used as a treatment that enables you to participate in physical therapy sessions without distracting pain, which can lead to long-term improvements in your quality of life.
If you have pain that is not explained by traditional diagnostic imaging, you could be a candidate for evaluation or treatment with nerve root blocks. To find out if you are a candidate for nerve root blocks, try our candidacy check tool.
Integrated Spine Institute
Address
10866 Riverside Dr.
North Hollywood, CA 91602