Facet Injections with Spine Pain Management

In your spine, the joints connecting each of your vertebrae are known as facet joints. They provide stability and limit the amount of twisting and backward extension of the spine.

Sports injuries, motor vehicle accidents, and arthritis can damage the facet joints. When the facet joints become inflamed, they can cause pain, soreness, and stiffness. Neck and low back pain are among the most common medical complaints worldwide, and facet joint syndrome is a common cause.

This condition is a deterioration of the facet joints, which help stabilize the

spine and limit excessive motion. The facet joints are lined with cartilage and

are surrounded by a lubricating capsule that enables the vertebrae to bend and twist. Facet injections can provide lower back pain relief.

If you're experiencing stiffness, limited motion, or difficulty extending your neck or back due to neck or back pain, facet joint injections might offer relief. Our Revive Spine and Pain Care Center team Pain Doctor, specializing in spine pain management in Duluth and Lawrenceville, conducts comprehensive evaluations, including imaging, to diagnose facet joint-related pain. These injections aim to reduce pain, enhance spinal function, and diagnose pain sources for effective back pain relief. By targeting the facet joints at the back of the spine, these injections can alleviate painful inflammation, providing both diagnostic insights and relief from discomfort.

All facet injections are performed in the Duluth clinic in the sterile procedure room using image guidance. You will first be comfortably positioned and monitors to check your vital signs will be placed. Oxygen will be given to you if you get sedation. After a sterile cleaning of the site to be injected, sedation will be given if desired. Then local anesthesia will be used to numb the skin. The needle will be placed using image guidance and confirmed with contrast dye. Medication will then be administered and needles removed. Band-aids will be placed and you will be taken to the recovery room until you are ready for discharge home.

Yes. If a facet injections only provides short term low back pain relief and if you have a significant amount of arthritis, you may be a candidate for treatment of the nerve that goes to the facet joint, called a radio frequency ablation. Please refer to our section on Radio frequency Ablation for more information.