Conversation: The conversation between human and AI assistant.
[|Human|] My husband is wondering if back injections ( epidural ) may help his digenerative disk problem at all. He has been on pain pills and muscle relaxers for various pain issue and has had no help from them in general which I believe is due to the fact that he is a drinker (whisky and diet coke mainly). Would he benefit at all from back injections if he continues to drink along with them, or would it just be in vein as well?
[|AI|]  HAI,1. Epidural steroid injections can be given to back pain because of degenerated disk,2. Now-a-days there is a controversy in this issue whether the injections are really useful for such conditions in long term compared to the risks involved,3. In short-term relief of acute pain, they are indeed helpful in giving a brief pain free period,4. Risks & Complications of epidural steroid are mainly due to the technique and immunodeficiency states. Seems your husband is alcoholic, so better rule out chances of bleeding tendency and status of his immunity to decrease chances of infection or poor healing, before going to epidural steroid injection.