Physical therapy and other treatments for neck pain can take time. But you don’t have to suffer with cervical pain while you undergo therapy. Instead of waiting for the pain and discomfort to go away before you get some relief, deal with it first. Thanks to the expertise of nationally recognized pain doctors at pain management New York, a cervical epidural ensures you a pain-free recovery. Call today to learn how steroid injections can start you on the path to healing.
As your best pain relief doctors works to treat your cervical pain, he may suggest a cervical epidural steroid injection. Your doctor’s experience and care provide you a comfortable and effective method for dealing with often-debilitating cervical pain.

Inflammation around the nerves in your neck cause pressure and pain that makes it hard to turn your head, bend forward or even sit comfortably. Many also report that cervical pain affects their sleep.
The nerve roots are surrounded by a sac called the dura, which in turn is surrounded by the epidural space. Injecting steroids directly into this space bathes the nerves in the soothing, pain-relieving medication.
Conditions That Benefit from Cervical Epidural Injections
Many sources of your neck pain may benefit from cervical epidural steroid injections. The diagnoses that can be treated include:
An injection manages your pain while you embark on a multidisciplinary rehabilitation program. Working together with the best-in-class pain doctor at New York pain clinic, a whole team of experts address your pain.

During a Cervical Epidural Steroid Injection
The injection procedure is relatively straightforward. You lie face down on an examining table. Your doctor cleans and sterilizes a small area around the injection site with a local anesthetic. Using an x-ray machine called a fluoroscope to guide the needle, your doctor injects contrast dye into your cervical epidural space. Next, a cortisone steroid solution is injected directly into the epidural space.
The medicine reduces inflammation and decreases or eliminates your pain. Injections provide short-term relief for your inflammation and pain. Then you can take advantage of the pain relief to concentrate on physical therapy. Stretching and strengthening exercises provide structural relief and can reverse or reduce the conditions that cause your discomfort.
Who Benefits from a Cervical Epidural Injection?
If you’ve been diagnosed with cervical pain, an injection helps. If you have one or more of the conditions listed above, you may benefit from an injection procedure. If you’re pregnant, have a bleeding condition, or are suffering from a local or systemic infection, your doctor may suggest alternative treatment options.
Let your doctor know if you have any allergies to injection products. Also alert your physician to any ongoing medical problems — such as congestive heart failure, diabetes or renal disease — as these can lead to complications. You must cease any medications like aspirin or anti-platelet drugs before the procedure, as they can cause excessive bleeding.
Advantages of Cervical Epidural Steroid Injections
The biggest benefit of steroid injections is that your doctor can apply the medicine directly to the site of the irritated nerves. Oral steroids or painkillers must pass through your digestive system. Not only does this dilute the effectiveness of the medication, it sets up potential for negative side effects. There are few cervical epidural side effects.
Further, the injection medicine combines lidocaine and a saline solution with the steroid to help numb your pain and flush out potential inflammatory proteins and chemicals that may be present in the dura sac. Steroids inhibit inflammation responses and flush the offending substances away. Your body’s immune response rushes white blood cells and other chemicals to the site to prevent infection.
Cervical Epidural Steroid Injection Recovery
Cervical epidural steroid injections are conducted as outpatient procedures in your Manhattan doctor’s office. You don’t even need sedation. That means you’re usually free to go home in 15 to 20 minutes. Although you may experience some slight tenderness around the injection site, you have no other cervical epidural steroid side effects when it’s administered by a trained, experienced pain doctor. Just rest at home for the remainder of the day.
The benefits of the injection start to manifest after several days, giving you the needed relief to begin or continue your rehabilitative plan. Talk to your pain doctor today to see if cervical epidural injections are right for you.

Boleslav Kosharskyy, MD, is a top-rated, best-in-class interventional pain management doctor. He is board-certified in Anesthesiology, Interventional Pain Medicine, and Palliative Care.
Dr. Kosharskyy is an Associate Professor of Anesthesiology and Rehabilitation Medicine at Albert Einstein Medical College. He’s also the Associate Medical Director of Pain Medicine and Director of Anesthesia for the Joint Replacement Center at Montefiore Medical Center and Albert Einstein Medical College.
He is an active member of the American Society of Anesthesiology (ASA), the American Society of Regional Anesthesia and Pain Medicine (ASRA), and the New York State Society of Anesthesiologists (NYSSA)