Epidural

[rcastle]

Do steriods make you have night sweats? For the last two months I have been recieveing epidural injections in my lumbar.Since then I have been waking up about every two hours soaking wet with sweat. Is this a side affect or is it something else?

[andyhutch1947]

I had a total of 22 cervical and lumbar epidural injections in Sept 2005 over a four week period.  I only received four injections in my cervical because I almost blacked out afterwards when my BP dropped extremely low.  Doctor refused to continue with more cervicals and continued with 18 lumbar epidurals.  Epidurals did not work for me and eventually I had three cervical surgeries resulting in fusion.with removal of vertabrae and three disc.  Since the epidurals I have had heavy sweats 5-10 times a day and most every night while asleep.  I wear a cervical soft collar while sleeping and it is totally saturated every morning.  I always carry a sweat towel with me around the house and while in the car.  I drink a lot of water to keep from being dehydrated.  I never had the heavy sweats prior to the epidurals except while exercising.  It is absolutely terrible to be this way.

My brother had epidurals because of lumbar injuries and his doctor said that he had mistakenly punctured something while administering the epidural.  My brother also suffers from heavy sweats but not as bad as mine.

I have wondered what causes these long term sweats and if there is anything possible to reverse this issue.  Maybe someone will offer me some suggestions.

Andy

[Abhijeet Deshmukh, MD]

Hello.

Night sweats are common side effects of spinal epidural injections. There are some other side effects you should keep an eye on. These are - hyperactivity/hypoactive, fluid retention, increased appetite, etc.

The side effects should not last this long. The night sweats usually go away once the inflammation has reduced.

Regards