At MedStar Health, our multidisciplinary specialist team works to find the cause of your neck and back pain, educate you on your condition, and provide you with the most effective and appropriate care available. We provide state-of-the-art pain management right in your neighborhood.
Whenever possible, our physicians recommend trying non-surgical therapies first to relieve your back and neck pain. We collaborate with rehabilitation teams and physical therapy specialists throughout the mid-Atlantic region to help provide pain relief and get you back to your active life.
Pain-relieving spinal injections
Spinal injections can provide highly-effective pain relief for many types of neck and back pain. Chronic neck and back pain is often caused by pinched nerves and/or compression of the spinal cord. Nerve roots can become compressed or inflamed where they exit the spinal cord, sending pain throughout the body.
‘Blocks’ are direct injections into the nerve or group of nerves that are sending pain signals. These injections fully or partially destroy the nerve and provide significant pain relief. Because different types of pain respond to different kinds of treatment, a spinal injection can also help your physician diagnose the source of your pain.
Our interventional neuroradiologists are experts in state-of-the-art spinal injection techniques and use CT scanning technology during procedures for precision needle guidance, ensuring safe and accurate injections. MedStar Health offers the full range of spinal injection procedures available today, including:
- Epidural steroid injections, which reduce pain that starts in the spine and radiates to an arm or leg. Epidural steroids such as cortisone are injected into the spinal canal to decrease inflammation or compression of a nerve and the associated nerve pain. These injections may be recommended for patients with herniated, bulging, or degenerated discs.
- Epidural lyses of adhesion, which are injections of a medication into damaged nerve roots to help dissolve scar tissue. These injections can help relieve chronic lower back pain.
- Facet joint blocks, which are injections of anti-inflammatory and pain-reducing medication to a facet joint located on the back of the spine where the vertebrae overlap. Degenerative disc disease, arthritic conditions, and injury can increase pressure on facet joints, and this type of injection can help reduce associated pain in the neck, middle back, and lower back.
- Intradiscal electrothermal therapy, which is the insertion of a heated needle into a pain-causing disc to destroy local pain receptors. This procedure can benefit patients with chronic disc pain.
- Nerve root blocks, which are pain-relieving injections targeting nerve roots as they exit the spinal cord.
- Sacroiliac joint injections, which are steroid injections between pelvic bones that can reduce inflammation and pain in the lower back and the buttock or leg on one side of the body.
Physical therapy/rehabilitation
The talented physical therapists in MedStar Health Physical Therapy work closely with our physicians to provide comprehensive physical therapy services. Our rehabilitation specialists are experts in helping you recover from back, neck, and spine pain.
Learn more about the back and neck pain conditions our team can help you address and the surgical approaches we offer when pain does not respond to conservative treatments:
Our providers
Expert Pain Management
Getting the care you need starts with seeing one of our specialists.