Spine specialists in Los Angeles commonly use PRP treatments, or platelet rich plasma treatments, and stem cell injection therapy to treat spinal injuries and back pain. PRP treatments require your spine doctor to take blood from your veins, concentrate the platelets, and inject the platelets back into the injured part of the body. Stem cell injection therapy is more advanced, and can differentiate into new tissue that is lost, and stimulate the body’s repair response.

Watch this video to learn more about stem cell injection and PRP treatments. Your spine doctor may recommend stem cell injection if you suffer from a degenerative or chronic disease, and PRP treatments if you are suffering from sudden back pain due to a back injury or spine injury.

Spine specialists in Los Angeles recommend epidural injections to treat a range of spinal injuries and sports injuries. Epidural injections are an incredibly safe and effective form of neck pain, lower back pain, and back injury treatment. If you’re considering visiting a spine doctor for an epidural injection, take a look at what you can expect during the procedure.

Prior to the Injection
A spine doctor at a spine and pain center will administer your epidural injection while you are lying flat on a table. If this position is uncomfortable or increases your back pain or lower back pain, you may be able to sit up

during the injection, or lie on your side. Be sure to speak up and let your spine doctor know if you experience pain or discomfort at any point during your back injury treatment. Before administering your epidural injection, your spine specialist will clean the injection area, and then numb it with a local anesthetic.

During the Injection Process
The spine specialist will use fluoroscopy (a live X-ray) to guide a needle into your skin and towards your epidural space. When the needle is in the proper position, your spine doctor will inject a contrast solution that will confirm that the epidural injection will be directed to the appropriate area. Next, your spine doctor will inject the epidural steroid solution very slowly. You may experience a feeling of pressure, but you should not feel any pain. After the injection, your spine doctor will monitor you for fifteen to twenty minutes to ensure that you do not experience any adverse reactions.

Success Rate and Recovery After the Injection
You may experience tenderness at the injection site after your injection, but this can be treated with ice packs and anti-inflammatory pain medication. You can usually resume your normal daily activities 24 hours after your back injury treatment. You may require a series of multiple injections for up to a year to maintain your back pain relief. The results of an epidural injection can last between one week and one year.

Back pain can be debilitating, and may prevent you from participating in your normal daily activities. A spine specialist at a spine and pain center in Los Angeles can offer you non-operative spine care like spinal injections to quickly, safely, and effectively relieve your back pain. Here is a look at the different types of spinal injections recommended for back pain and back injury treatment.

Epidural Steroid Injections
Your spine specialist may recommend an epidural injection of anti-inflammatory steroids if you suffer from lower back pain and sciatica. Before administering the epidural, your spine doctor will numb your skin with a local anesthetic, and will use a fluoroscope to guide the needle into the nerve root. The procedure is pain-free, and only takes about fifteen to thirty minutes. You may need to return to your spine and pain center every four to six weeks for additional injections.

Nerve Root Injections
Another common lower back pain or back injury treatment is nerve root injections. Nerve root injections utilize both anti-inflammatory steroids and lidocaine to provide back pain relief. Your spine doctor may utilize nerve root injections to determine which nerve is the source of your lower back pain and sciatica. The lidocaine numbs the nerve root to relieve pain, and the steroid reduces the inflammation and pain that is caused by the pressure on the nerve root. Your spine doctor will administer a local anesthetic prior to your nerve root injection. The entire procedure takes around fifteen to twenty minutes, and most patients report immediate back pain relief that lasts for several months.

Facet Joint Injections
Facet joints are located along the spinal cord, between each set of vertebrae. The tissues around your facet joints can become inflamed and swollen, causing upper back pain or lower back pain. Facet joint injections consist of a local anesthetic and steroid, and are administered by a spine doctor directly into the facet joint in a ten to fifteen minute procedure. Back pain relief is immediate, and can last for several months.

Many people believe that spinal surgery is the only treatment option for problematic back or neck pain. Marina Spine Center offers non-operative care options like medications, manipulations, and spinal injections in Los Angeles to try to treat pain without surgery.

Spinal surgeons will often prescribe anti-inflammatory medications, muscle relaxants, or analgesics to try to decrease pain before they even consider surgery. They might also inject numbing medications or steroids into the affected area to decrease discomfort.

Options like physical therapy or core stabilization techniques can also help with the pain. Check out this video to learn more about these non-operative care options and how they can help relieve back pain.

Although spine surgery can be the best way to address some types of back pain, it isn’t the solution for every patient. Non-operative options may provide better results than spine surgery for some patients. Your spine surgeon serving Los Angeles can help you decide what treatment approach is best for you.

Two common types of non-surgical treatments for back pain are physical therapy and spinal injections. Physical therapy focuses on building the muscles that support the spine and helping patients find comfortable positions that ease spine pain caused by conditions like herniated discs and pinched nerves. Spinal injections involve the use of anti-inflammatory steroids and numbing medications to ease back pain. These medications can be injected directly into the site of the pain so that symptoms are eased while the body heals itself. If these non-invasive back pain treatments are successful, spine surgery is generally not necessary.