Can you tell me about facet joint block?

Facet joints: Are the joints that articulate on the backside of the vertebrae and can become fairly arthritic. The medial branch nerves innervate them and blocking these nerves, or injecting the facet itself, can be both diagnostic and therapeutic. They are above the entrance way to the spinal cord, so they are safe injections and can be great for pain relief.

Facet Joint Pain: Radiofrequency procedures work well if a previous facet injection or medial branch block was performed with greater than 75-80% relief that was obtained. This is used to determine pain from facet joints. As with anything there are failures, but quite low if the block worked well. Risks are the same as with any spine procedure, no different. Rare that you would be worse off afterwards.