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The risks, although infrequent, include: Allergic reactions to the medications, nerve damage, bruising at the injection site, and puncture of the dura resulting in headache. Dr. Becker will give you a more thorough explanation at the time of your appointment.
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In a six month period, we generally do not perform more than three injections. This is because the medication injected lasts for about six months. If three injections have not helped you much, it is very unlikely that you will get any further benefit from more injections. Also, giving more injections will increase the likelihood of side effects from cortisone.
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It is very difficult to predict if the injection will indeed help you or not. Generally speaking, the patients who have "radicular symptoms" (like sciatica) respond better to the injections than the patients who have only back pain. Similarly, the patients with a recent onset of pain may respond much better than the ones with a long-standing pain. Also, the patients with back pain mainly due to bony abnormality may not respond adequately.
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If you are allergic to any of the medications to be injected, if you are on a blood thinning medication (e.g. Plavix®,Coumadin®), or if you have an active infection going on, you should not have the injection.
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