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Can Your Back Pain Be Cured with a Cortisone Injection?

By Jesse Cannone, CFT, CPRS
HealthLife.com Contributor
Updated: June 27, 2008
If you've read any of our work and subscribe to our point of view, you already know the answer to that question. For those of you who are just joining us, allow me to share my opinion of cortisone injections as a treatment for back pain and sciatica.

First, let's go over some of the terminology to make sure we're all on the same page. Cortisone injection, epidural, steroid injection, and epidural steroid injection are all essentially the same thing. The goal is to inject a chemical into the inflamed area and try to control the inflammation, delivering relief in the short term. When I say "short term," I'm saying that some people feel better by the time they get home, or perhaps the next morning.

How is it that professional athletes can play hurt or beat themselves up on game day, and a week later they can do it again - and continue to do this week after week, year after year? The answer is simple: Science has learned how to trick the body into feeling better and working harder.

Sure, steroid injections can reduce localized inflammation, and that can help you feel better. It may even help you with your rehab. Studies have shown that roughly half of those who try steroid injections get some level of relief - at least, for a while.

Here is the bigger question: Are you willing to take those odds? Let's see...You have a 50 percent chance that it won't work at all, and a 50 percent chance of "some" relief for an undetermined amount of time. As you ponder that, I should add that steroid injections "HURT LIKE HELL!" This is a universally accepted fact. Now, I can imagine what you're thinking - you're in pain, you've tried everything else, and you're at your wit's end. You're ready to do anything to get relief. Thank goodness you're reading this, because I'm about to save your life.
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The Cash Cow

Steroid injection has been around since the early 1950s, and it remains a primary treatment for general practitioners all the way to orthopedic surgeons. Why? First of all, it offers the hope of quick relief. Second, it's a Big Fat Cash Cow. Let's do the math. Say you have sciatica, and you go to see Dr. Prick Butt and he says, "Not much I can do for you other than give you a steroid injection. Of course, it may take up to three of these to achieve the best results." Three injections @ $150 per injection = $450. Now, taking into account that the average orthopedist probably sees at least 20 patients a day and works 180 days a year, that comes to 3,600 patients. If 20 percent of those patients get three steroid injections, that's an annual income of $324,000 ($450 X 750 patients). That's for 10 minutes of work per patient. And you wonder why things haven't changed in more than 50 years.

If that weren't bad enough, let me explain why these injections fail to deliver long-term relief. Steroid Injections are solely designed to treat the symptoms of your condition. Unfortunately, many doctors don't take the time to help their patients find out what's causing the pain. Were they not taught in med school to address the underlying issues, or is it simply that they don't have the time to spend with each patient? I'll let you drawn your own conclusions.
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