Facet Joint Injection – Effective Pain Management

Facet Joint Injections
Facet joint injections are used to alleviate the pain and symptoms of the Facet Syndrome, which can affect any part of your spine. The condition causes debilitating pain in the corresponding spine area.

Who Needs Facet Joint Injections?
The patients who suffer from the pain of facet joints due to a back injury, arthritis of the spine, or stress on the spine are usually recommended to use these injections. Cervical, thoracic, and lumbar regions of the spine are candidates of facet joint injections.

The most common symptoms associated with facet joint problems include:

• Neck pain and stiffness, which often worsens with activity.
• Grinding sound, as bones scrape against each other with movement of the neck.
• Headaches.
• Muscle spasms in the neck and shoulders.
• Pain that is at its most intense first thing in the morning and then again at the end of the day.
• Pain that radiates from the neck into the shoulders and between the shoulder blades.
• Stinging pain that travels down the arms.
• Pain after resting or sleeping.
• Pain after bending your upper body backward or to one side.
• Pain that feels centered in your lower back, but may extend into your buttocks and thighs.
• Bone spurs that cause tingling and stinging in your back and limb.

 

How Is It Performed?
The pain management specialist injects a small amount of numbing agent and/or steroid medication to anesthetize the joint and stop the pain. Facet joint injections allow the patient to get through the physical therapy routine to rehabilitate the injury or condition that is causing the facet joint pain in the first place.

Without facet joint injections, the patient may not be able to tolerate the pain and go through therapy required to heal the spine.

Benefits of Using Facet Joint Injections
Facet joint injections are utilized to achieve two goals:

• Pain relief

When the specialist injects into the facet joint, he or she also includes a time-release steroid (cortisone). This helps to reduce the inflammation and provide long-term pain relief.

• Diagnostic

Facet joint injections are also used as a diagnostic tool; the specialist injects numbing medication into the facet joint for immediate pain relief. The patient can then determine whether he is still experiencing pain. If there is complete pain relief, while the facet joint is numb, it means that the joint is likely the cause of the pain.

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