Epidural injection: Learn about the procedure

Learn about the procedure, benefits, and risks of epidural anesthesia, as well as recovery steps and the differences compared to spinal anesthesia. Epidural injections are a common medical procedure to alleviate pain in the lower back, neck, and legs. Learn about the purpose, procedure, effectiveness, and risks of this treatment, as well as the conditions it can help and the recovery process. Information on an epidural steroid injection to the cervical, thoracic, or lumbar area of the spinal cord. This procedure may be necessary due to a herniated disc, spinal stenosis, nerve root compression, or bone spurs. Epidural injections are commonly used to provide pain relief (analgesia) during childbirth. [2] This usually involves epidural injection of a local anesthetic and opioids, commonly called an " epidural ". This is more effective than oral or intravenous (IV) opioids and other common modalities of analgesia in childbirth. [3] After an epidural is administered, the recipient may not feel pain, but may still feel pressure. [4] Epidural clonidine is rarely used but has been extensively studied for ...