The Food and Drug Administration is warning that injections of corticosteroids into the spine's epidural space — commonly done to treat back or neck pain — can result in loss of vision, stroke, paralysis, and death.
 

According to the Los Angeles Times, the FDA warning is part of an agency effort to improve the safety of the pain treatment, which has never received the agency's formal blessing.
 

Many patients and physicians swear by it, but the use of corticosteroids injected into the spinal space has never been shown safe and effective in clinical trials assessed by the FDA. The problems identified by the agency are not related to the fungal and other contamination introduced by compounding pharmacies that killed 48 people in 2012 and 2013.
 

Physicians offering these injections to patients with back or neck pain should discuss these rare but serious risks with patients considering a jab of steroidal medication into the cerebrospinal fluid, the FDA said.
 

Later this year, the agency plans to convene an advisory panel to discuss the risks and benefits of such injections and explore whether further regulation would reduce injuries from this use of injected methylprednisolone, hydrocortisone, triamcinolone, betamethasone and dexamethasone.