IMHO, a relatively small percentage of patients get any long term value out of these types of injections. But for those that do, it's great. Picture having a very sensitive cut on your index finger. You'd discover a thousand times a day that you bump your finger and it hurts like an SOB. Every time you bump your finger, you re-inflame the cut. As long as you keep bumping it, you'll keep it from healing because you cause more inflammation.
If you can reduce the inflammation enough that the system can heal (while it's artificially less inflammed/swollen/prone to more damage when you move wrong), then you can get some long term benefit. This is the theoritical reason why they'll do a series of injections a few weeks apart. (IMHO, performing a 3rd injection if there was no benefit from the first two is more about money than medicine.)
My guess (just pulling numbers out of the air) is that maybe 10 - 15% of the lumbar patients I know get some real benefit from the injections. (beyond the diagnostic value)
There can be false positives and false negatives on the injections as they may not always get the injectant to where they want it to go.
Mark
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