Can you tell me what is a facet joint block?

A shot: Cortisone like medicine or anesthetic (numbing) medicine is injected (shot into) the joint or around the nerve going to the joint. The most accurate means is to use a fluoroscopy (x-ray) machine and a small amount of dye to be sure the medication gets to the right spot.

Given for diagnosis: Facet blocks are used for diagnostic purposes and can be also combined with a steroid such as kenalog (triamcinolone) for additional short term relief if this is the source of the back pain. The facet joints are true joints located in the spine, 2 at each level that are load bearing and allow for certain motions and can be injured or develop arthritis.

Spine Joints: Facet joints are places on the spinal bones where two bones actually meet and articulate, therefore a facet joint injection is into that place where they meet. Many times arthritis or inflammation can arise here and cause pain.

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.