Why recommend epidural steroid injections for severe lower back pain when patient is scared of them after recent deaths from contamination?

Epidural safety: Most epidural injections are extremely safe and effective for radiating arm or leg pain associated with a pinched nerve. They are less effective for back or neck pain only. The epidural injections that caused meningitis were due to contaminated medicine purchased from a single pharmacy United States. This pharmacy no longer produces this medicine.

Could work well: Epidural steroid injections are not considered good medicine by some. The recent outbreak of fungal infections with 25 deaths in 18 states resulted from a contaminated batch in a massachusetts pharmacy, and should be an exceptionally rare event. Pain which is localized to nerve roots that are compressed, may respond very well to injections, after a failed trial of Ibuprofen and rest.

Scientific studies: Epidural injections have a proven track record of successfully treating many pain conditions when performed by experienced physicians on appropriately selected patients. The recent outbreaks of fungal meningitis were traced to a small number of compounding pharmacies and represent a very small percentage of the total number of epidurals performed each year in the United States.