MRI Showing Stenosis 5 Bulging Discs Bony Spurs. Had Epidural Steroid Injection. No Improvement. What Do You Suggest?

Posted on Thu, 7 Nov 2013

Medically reviewed by Ask A Doctor - 24x7 Medical Review Team

Thu, 7 Nov 2013 Answered on

Wed, 27 Nov 2013 Last reviewed on

Question : MRI showed stenosis 5 bulging discs bony spurs. Surgeon explained surgery was risky I had a ESI 9 days ago I am not feeling any diferent Does this mean I will not have good results

Answered by Dr. Dr. Ivan Romich (-5 hours later)

Brief Answer: hi and welcome to XXXXXXX Detailed Answer: Thanks for the query. It is not uncommon that there is no improvement after esi and in such cases it is recommended to have another esi procedure 2 weeks and 4 weeks after first one. If there wasnt change in first 7 days then probably wont be at all. But as i said,do it 2 more times and if everything is the same then you should find another treatment method for pain. (Physical therapy, TEN,medicines,chiro,hypnosis,surgery, etc). Also,sometimes esi is not done properly or not enough anestetic is injected so this could have been reason for persistence of pain in your case. Wish you good health. Feel free to ask. Regards

Above answer was peer-reviewed by : Dr. Chakravarthy Mazumdar