Articles Tagged with “steroid injections”

Back pain is one of the most disabling conditions that a person can suffer from, and very often the pain is so debilitating that it no longer allows the person to work. A recent study, however, showed evidence that some back pain sufferers may also be at risk of a spinal fracture if they are taking steroid injections for pain.

The study was published in the Journal of Bone and Joint Surgery, and suggests that older patients who suffer from low bone density should be particularly cautious when receiving steroid injections.

At issue are lumbar epidural steroid injections, which are injections into the spine where the nerve is being compressed, usually due to a spinal stenosis or herniated disc. While it has been widely accepted in medical literature for years that the use of steroid injections over a period of time can lead to a decrease in bone mineral density, this new research goes a step further by linking this lowered bone mineral density to the more serious spinal fracture.