Lumbar Pain Management Close to Home

 MedStar St. Mary’s Hospital is pleased to provide our Southern Maryland community with new or expanded services and procedures in Diagnostic and Outpatient Imaging. In recent years, Imaging has added new radiologists, specialists and equipment that make the expansion of services possible.

Treating the patient and not just the back pain is important to Jeremy Camden, MD, musculoskeletal radiologist and interventionalist with expertise in pain management at MedStar St. Mary’s Hospital’s Imaging Department. Patients are frequently referred to Dr. Camden for lumbar pain management when dealing with lumbar radicular pain, “pain in the back that shoots down the leg” related to a pinched nerve from disc herniations or arthritis.

Epidural steroid injections are an effective treatment for lumbar radicular pain. The brief, outpatient procedure helps to decrease inflammation and can provide significant pain relief for several months. Dr. Camden tailors each injection for the patient’s specific problem and performs a selective nerve root injection or a more general injection if there are multiple sources of pain. He typically uses fluoroscopic guidance with a small amount of contrast dye to target the specific nerve and provide the best pain management possible.

“A conversation with the patient about their pain and correlation with the patient’s imaging help to confirm the best placement for the injection,” said Dr. Camden. The main objective is to decrease or relieve the pain, but the treatment can also provide diagnostic information, he added.

If you think you are a candidate for this pain relief option, talk to your doctor. To make a pain management appointment call 240-434-7024. Physician referral required.