I want to know if my esi was done correctly. a neurosurgeon gave me 3 esi's almost 2 years back. 2 in my lumbar spine & 1 in my thoracic spine. the ones to the lumbar, i didn't feel much of a difference. the 1 to my thoracic caused a lot of pain, during t

In : In the past spinal epidural injections were done without x-ray. Today lumbar punctures to evaluate for meningitis and epidurals catheters for pain control during childbirth are still done without x-ray. Spinal injections are now usually done with x-ray to verify the needle position and because of the greater complexity of some injections compared to standard lumbar epidural injections you had. Doctors think that the chance of getting the medicine in the correct location is better using x-ray, even though they were done without x-ray for years. Unfortunately no spinal injection, or spinal surgery for that matter, work all the time for everyone. Good luck!