Do steroid injections effectively break up scar tissue and ease pain?
hubby is about 1 year post back surgery (disc removal by neurosurgeon). was told he should feel better in 6 weeks and could go back to regular lifting. he's still in major pain. pain doc did second MRI and said his back is a "mess." pain doc suggests that epidural injections will break up scar tissue which is causing his pain. hubby is reluctant and very skeptical after having gone through surgery and feeling it was not successful. pre-surgery, hubby had 4 steroid injections but only the 1st one gave him relief.
The doctor is proposing something quite different - this time he wants to use steroid injections to break the scar tissue; prior to that he was probably trying to use them to reduce inflammation. Steroids are commonly used to reduce scar tissue. He might want to give it a try.
Here's what Wikipedia says;
A long term course of steroid injections under medical supervision, into the scar may help flatten and soften the appearance of keloid or hypertrophic scars.
The steroid is injected into the scar itself; since very little is absorbed into the blood stream, side effects of this treatment are minor. However, it does cause thinning of the scar tissue so it does carry risks when injected into scars caused by operations into ruptured tendons. This treatment is repeated at 4-6 week intervals.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Scar
Steroids are also used in plastic surgery to reduce scars.
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I've had 2 sets of steroid injections this year and only had temporary relief.
The first injection I was pain free for 6 weeks.
The second lasted about 2 months. As far as removing scar tissue I've
never heard of this.
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