Interventional Spine Procedures

What are interventional spine procedures?

Interventional spine procedures are injections or other treatments that alleviate pain that originates in or around your spine. Sometimes your doctor recommends a diagnostic interventional spine procedure to confirm the source of your pain.   

At Spine Center and Orthopedic Rehabilitation of Englewood, PC, the doctors recommend epidural steroid injections, facet joint injections, medial branch block (MBB) injections, sacroiliac joint injections, and radiofrequency ablation if your pain hasn’t responded to other therapies. 

They perform interventional spine procedures in a hospital setting and use X-ray imaging to guide the injection or therapy.

What is an epidural steroid injection?

If you have pain in your arms or legs, it may be caused by a pinched nerve in your spine. If so, your doctor injects a corticosteroid into the epidural space near the affected nerve to alleviate inflammation. The epidural space lies outside the membrane that protects your spinal cord.

What is a facet joint injection?

Your facet joints connect your vertebrae and allow your spine to move in various directions. When your facet joints degrade or become inflamed, they can cause pain in your:

• Neck
• Middle back
• Lower back
• Shoulders
• Buttocks
• Thighs

Your doctor either injects an anesthetic into the facet joint or into the nerve branches that extend outward from the facet joint, known as the medial branches.

What is a medial branch block (MBB) injection?

The medial branches are the nerves that supply the facet joints. If you have pain that originates in your facet joints, your doctor may inject an anesthetic into the medial branches to stop the pain signals.

What is a sacroiliac joint injection?

The sacroiliac joints connect your lower back (i.e., sacrum) to each side of your pelvis (i.e., ileum). Usually, you only have pain in one sacroiliac joint, which could radiate to your lower back, buttocks, or leg. Your doctor injects the sacroiliac joint with an anesthetic to dull the pain.

What is radiofrequency ablation?

Spine injections help your doctor locate the source of your pain and reduce it with anesthetics or steroids. However, the medication wears off. Once your doctor has identified the nerves involved in your pain, they may recommend destroying the nerve tissue with radiofrequency ablation (RFA).

In RFA, your doctor heats up nerve tissue with radio waves, so the nerve can’t transmit pain signals. Pain relief with RFA can last for a year or many years.

Contact Spine Center and Orthopedic Rehabilitation of Englewood, PC, about interventional spine procedures by phone or online form.