Facet Injections Offered for Back and Neck Pain

Back pain, specifically felt in the spine area, may be a sign of facet arthropathy.  The pain specialists at The Center for Interventional Pain at Mercy Medical Center treat this condition using facet injections.

What is a Facet Injection?

Facet injections are often used to diagnose and treat pain emanating from the facet joints.

Facet joints become especially vulnerable when the intervertebral disc of the spine is injured. As the disc degenerates, the volume of the disc is reduced and the disc space tends to flatten out. The disc therefore loses height and the space between the vertebral bodies becomes narrowed.

The flattening disc space provides much less support for the facet joints at that particular level, and the joints become subject to increased stress. Facet joint pain is often felt in the spinal area rather than in an arm or leg.

How is a Facet Injection performed?

Injections of steroids directly into the facet joints may reduce pain and facilitate rehabilitative therapy. If pain returns after joint injection, the small sensory nerve to the joint (medial branch nerve) can be identified and removed to obtain long-term pain relief with a technique called radiofrequency medial branch ablation.