The areas where pain treatment is most effective are low back and neck pain. If there is no response to painkillers and muscle relaxants or FTR treatments in back and neck hernias, it is useful to consult an algology specialist.
Here, injection treatments (Epidural steroid or cortisone) are a method we prefer in hernias. Injections eliminate nerve swelling and prevent the release of pain-causing substances from the discs. These treatments have 50-80% efficacy, which is an important success. Moreover, the treatments applied do not only eliminate the pain, they are treated. Patients get rid of their pain and numbness in their arms or feet and return to their normal daily lives. These injections start to show their effect about 3-4 days after the application. This method, which can be applied 3 times a year, should be performed in operating room conditions and by experienced physicians.
It is necessary to put forward some principles;
– First of all, it is necessary to start this work with drugs. In particular, we need to use the painkillers taken orally, which we call oral drugs, at the beginning, and we have to start with the system that we call the step system put forward by the World Health Organization.
– Painkillers should be used consciously according to the severity of the pain. Sometimes we can use the drugs in the three steps together. Sometimes, depending on the severity of the pain, we can use the third-line drugs directly. We call it the elevator system. While applying the step system, in recent years, treatment can be started from the third step by applying the elevator system directly according to the severity of the pain.
