Epidural Epidemic: Routine Pain Treatment Linked To Potential Complications

LOS ANGELES (CBS) — Back pain: lots of folks have it and can be desperate for relief.

But for some people, a common treatment made things a lot worse, and now they're speaking out.

A healthy person cannot imagine the pain of some patients who describe intense pain that shoots through their spine and legs, making life virtually unbearable.

And according to KCBS Health Reporter Lisa Sigell, they say their suffering was caused by treatment itself: routine epidurals they received either for back pain or during childbirth.

West Covina pain specialist Forest Tennant is an expert on adhesive arachnoiditis, a condition in which trauma in and around the spinal cord causes nerves to swell and then stick together like overcooked spaghetti.

"It can be the worst pain that there is," said Tenant.

Once thought to be a rare condition, Tenant says, it's becoming more common, mainly because of the excess use of epidural injections.

Terri Anderson, who said she started getting epidural shots for a herniated disc, says she could hike 20 miles a day and ski black diamond slopes when she worked for the U.S. Forest Service.

She says while she did benefit from the shots at first, when the pain returned, she kept coming back for more.

Anderson says she'll never forget her last epidural.

"I felt burning, fiery burning, that radiated down my leg," said Anderson. "And I yelled out, 'Something's wrong, something's not right.' "

That was five years ago, and the fiery feeling has never left, what Anderson described as "suicide-level pain."

"I wish I had known this was a potential risk," she said.

Millions of epidural shots are given every year, but what isn't always obvious is that they've never been approved by the FDA.

Gary Snook used to be a contractor, and like Anderson, he was active until he received his fourth epidural.

"After that, my pain went ballistic, unlike anything I'd ever experienced," said Snook.

When it didn't go away, Snook says, the doctor wanted him to get a series of 48 epidural steroid injections.

But when Snook refused, he says, they dropped him as a patient.

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