Prof. Wicharn, the doctor you refer to, has 2 anesthesiologists who work with him and provide these injections. He also works with physical therapists. The fact that someone is a surgeon does not mean they only do surgery. I can assure you from first hand experience that Prof. Wicharn does not recommend ir perform surgery on all patients. Probably not even most. One does not go straight to an anesthesiolgist for this as the cause of the pain must first be identified. Which takes an expert ortho specializing in spine to do, reviewing scans and Xrays in the context of the clinical picture. Not only can such a specialalist usually identify the source of the pain, he can also assess the likelihood steroid injections will help. Sometimes, if there is doubt about cause of the pain, nerve conduction studies may also be done. Abnormal findings on MRI are common and not necessarily the cause of the pain. This is why it is so importnat to be assessed by s very experienced spjnal specialist. The various injections you list are the same thing just injected in diffrent parts of the spine according to the source of the pain. I have had these injections 3 times, twice in lumbar spine and once in cervical spine. . One helped only for 2 weeks (I then had surgery) and 2 gave what is so far permanent relief. My sister had it once with so far (15 years later) permanent relief. With all treatments -- injections, physical theraoy, surgery, medications --the likelihood of success is highest if the cause of the pain has been correctly identified. Even when the injectons don't help, they can be useful in confirming the diagnosis because in additon to steroid they contsin shorter acting local anesthetic (hence my injection that worked for only 2 weeks -- the diagnosis was correct but there was nerve compressed by bone to an extent only surgery coul relieve Go see Prof. Wicharn bringing thr MRI on DVD with you.
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