What are the different types of pain relieving spinal injections?

03 Aug What are the different types of pain relieving spinal injections?

When a person is suffering from back and/or leg pain, the Seattle pain management doctor may offer the option for a spinal injection. It can be confusing to understand what those different options mean. There are three main types of spinal injections typically under consideration.

One of the main types involves epidural steroid injections. These involve the placement of Cortisone, a heavy anti-inflammatory medication along with numbing medicine close to the area of nerve roots that are being pinched. This may be occurring with sciatica or possibly spinal stenosis.

There are three types of epidural steroid injections, including the interlaminar variety, transforaminal or caudal epidural injections. There are some variations as to how each of these is performed, but the main point is that these procedures are performed to relieve the pain from a pinched nerve. These are not typically back pain procedures, but more for buttock, thigh or leg pain due to a pinched nerve such as with sciatica.

The second and third, spinal injection procedures are facet joint injections and medial branch blocks. These interventional pain management procedures are meant to relieve chronic back or neck pain due to arthritis causing pain in the small joints in the back of the spine, called the facet joints.

Medial Branch Block

A facet joint injection involves steroid and numbing medicine being placed directly into the arthritic joint to achieve relief. This may provide pain relief for months at a time, and can then be repeated just like other joint injections.

The medial branch block is slightly different. Numbing medicine and possibly steroid is injected into places outside the joint to block the sensory nerves that supply the facet joint. These sensory nerves are called the media branches in the procedure often provides months of effective relief. It also serves as a diagnostic procedure to help the pain management doctor in Seattle know if that specific joint is the source of a person’s back or neck pain.

So when it comes to spinal injections, there are additional options available but these are the three most common seen. The top pain management clinic in Seattle metro – Seattle Pain Relief, offers all of these procedures for patients and many more for sciatica and back pain relief.

Most insurance is accepted, call (855) WASH-PAIN for more information and scheduling with pain management Seattle trusts!