If you suffer from chronic back or neck pain, you may be a good candidate for facet joint injections. A facet joint injection involves administering a steroid medication and a local anesthetic to the facet joints of the back to help relieve chronic spinal pain due to conditions affecting these joints. Your back will be numbed with local anesthetic injections using a very small needle. You may feel a brief stinging or burning sensation, which will go away in about 15 seconds.
With the help of X-rays, longer needles are inserted into the facet joints along the vertebral column. All of our procedures begin by injecting a small amount of local anesthetic through a very small needle. It feels like a small pinch and then a slight burning sensation when the local anesthetic starts to numb the skin. After numbing the skin, the needle from the procedure feels as if there is a little pressure at the injection site.
If you experience any pain during the procedure, the doctor will inject more local anesthetic as needed. After the injection, you may feel immediate pain relief. However, this is not always the case. It is not uncommon for patients to experience some pain and bruising at the injection site.
This is normal and should resolve within a few days. You may also be given an ice pack or compression bandage to relieve any swelling. If your facet joint injection is successful, you should expect to experience pain relief for several months. Keep in mind that all patients react differently. You may experience total pain relief or just a little or even none at all. You're more likely to notice faster relief if the joints where the injection was given were the main source of pain.
If the facet joint causing the pain was treated, the patient will begin to feel pain relief by the end of the first week after the injection. These problems cause facet joints to swell, causing pain that limits the mobility of the person affected. If the swelling of a facet joint is severe enough, the inflamed tissue can compress the nerve that crosses it and cause symptoms such as numbness of the anatomy to which it provides sensitivity. Therefore, it was concluded that there was moderate evidence of short-term relief and limited evidence of long-term relief from chronic neck and lower back pain when facet joint injections were performed. It's important to know what to expect after receiving facet joint injections so you can be prepared for the recovery process. Facet joints are a group of joints located between the processes of articulation of two adjacent spinal bones (vertebrae) and, therefore, of these bones.
When one or more facet joints deteriorate for any reason, the pain may radiate to other areas of the body. They all involve injecting an anesthetic and a long-lasting anti-inflammatory steroid into the facet joint. Facet joints are the small stabilizing joints of the spine and can become painful for a variety of reasons. Facet joint pain is experienced anywhere from the neck and shoulders to the hips and upper thighs and sometimes in the legs. This is a good way to strengthen your back muscles and determine if the injection was given into the correct facet joint. Side effects of the injected steroid may include temporary weight gain, temporary increase in blood sugar (mainly in diabetics), and temporary fluid retention; you can talk about the steroid medication in more detail when the injection is given. Facet joint injections can provide relief from chronic neck and lower back pain for several months, but it's important to understand what to expect before, during, and after receiving them so you can be prepared for any potential side effects or complications.