Day Procedures
If you have been experiencing arm pain or back pain because of a pinched nerve either in your neck or in your back an injection around the affected nerve may help with your pain.
Dr Moloney likes to use some local anaesthetic along with the Cortisone which can give patients the effect of some numbness in their arm or their leg when their anaesthetic wears off. A patient may get some relief from the injected local anaesthetic while the Cortisone might take a bit longer to take effect. If the Cortisone does take effect it will last a lot longer than the local anaesthetic.
The injection is performed under image intensification which means that Dr Moloney uses x-ray to ensure the needle is well placed.
This procedure is done in the private hospital with an Anaesthetist present. The Anaesthetist will administer a twilight sedation before Dr Moloney does the injection. As this is done as a day procedure you will need somebody to drive you to and from the hospital. Usually you will be admitted early in the morning (the hospital will ring you the night before to tell you the time of your admission) and leave usually by mid afternoon once your observations are stable.
Periradicular injections can also be used to diagnose where your pain is coming from on the path to other treatment. If you get some relief initially and the pain comes back that can mean that the nerve around which the injection was performed is where your pain is coming from. We therefore have more information which enables discussion about other options.
