Caudal Epidural Injections

At your initial consultation, the doctor will take time to understand your symptoms and undertake a thorough assessment to ensure the injection is right for you. It is important to let the doctor know of any known allergies, such as plasters and to inform us if you are pregnant. Please also let the doctor know if you have any medical conditions and take any regular medications including blood thinning medications. This is also a great opportunity to ask the doctor any questions you may have about the procedure.

Before having your treatment eat and drink as normal, including taking any regular medication (unless otherwise advised by the doctor, e.g. blood thinning medication).

Please come to your appointment wearing loose, comfortable clothing.

The doctor will explain everything to you before your procedure and ask you to sign a consent form to confirm that you are happy to proceed.

All spinal injections are performed using our high-tech fluoroscopic x-ray for guidance and precision, by using this image guidance for accuracy and safety, the doctor can be confident the injectate is being delivered to the desired location.

Local anaesthetic is used on the injection point to make the procedure as comfortable as possible for you. Once the position has been checked with a special dye, visible on x-ray, the steroid will be injected. Some patients experience feelings of pressure as the fluid is injected due to the volume used in a caudal epidural, or a temporary reproduction of sciatic type symptoms. However, patients are often surprised at how quick and comfortable the process is.

In some cases the benefit may appear almost immediately. However, the injection is a long acting steroid which may take around two weeks to become fully effective. It is common to not feel a huge benefit for the first day or two and some people may feel a slight increase in their symptoms temporarily, but this should begin to settle within one week.

How long will it last for?

We have seen patients make a full recovery with caudal epidurals time and time again.

This is even more likely when patients have also benefited from the guidance of our experienced therapists who specialise in treating back and leg pain.

However, this is not always the case sometimes we see patients symptoms return after 3 months or so. If you do feel the effects wearing off sooner than you would have liked, please don’t worry, the epidural can safely be repeated to give a longer lasting effect. If the caudal epidural has not worked, there are also lots of other more direct treatment options such as a Transforamanial Injections or Facet Joint injections that are very effective as a second line of treatment.

Yes, you Caudal Epidural injection does need to be guided due to the high degree of specificity required to get your injection right where it needs to be, it is necessary to use fluoroscopic guidance.

Your Caudal Epidural injection will be carried out by experienced consultant doctor Tom Saw

The injectate used in a caudal epidural is a mixture of saline and corticosteroid, it is the anti-inflammatory steroid used that will help to reduce the swelling and irritation in the spine. Delivered to the base of your spine, the medicine will travel up the spinal canal in your lumbar spine, enabling the steroid to reach multiple areas and levels that may be causing the pain. Due to the volume of the injectate, it may also have a physical effect by increasing the space around the compressed nerves.

This injection can provide strong anti-inflammatory relief for those experiencing symptoms as a result of back injury, conditions such as disc prolapses, degenerative disc disease and spinal stenosis. Caudal epidurals have proven to be highly effective in the relief of sciatica, with research showing 75% of patients could return to their normal activities sooner.