Traditional Chronic Pain Treatments
Medial branch blocks – Epidural Steroid Injections – Facet Injections – Radio Frequency Ablation
Effective, common treatments to alleviate your pain
An epidural steroid injection (ESI) is a minimally invasive procedure that is performed to help relieve neck, arm, back, and leg pain caused by inflamed spinal nerves. Inflamed spinal nerves can be caused by a number of underlying conditions such as spinal stenosis or disc herniation. The procedure works by injecting medicines into epidural space. Pain relief may last for several days or even years. The goal is to reduce pain so that you may resume normal activities.
Pain information from facet joints travels to the brain along nerve endings called medial branches. In order to determine whether or not facet joints are causing pain, medial branch nerves can be diagnostically blocked so the patient can determine whether or not there were changes in their pain as a result of the procedure. Medial branch block (MBB) is performed to confirm the correct diagnoses and the correct number of facets contributing to pain.
This procedure is performed after the initial medial branch diagnostic injection has determined that facet joints are the source of your back pain symptoms. A radiofrequency ablation procedure uses radio-magnetic waves to stop the lumbar medial branch nerve from transmitting pain signals from the facet joints to the brain. The doctor uses an x-ray to direct specialized needles to the specific medial branches that are transmitting your pain signals. Once the location of each needle is finalized, anesthetic is used and radiofrequency procedure is performed.