Interventional Pain Management Treatment
Minimally Invasive Procedures : Injections
Are you sick of taking pain medication every day, only to still be in pain? If you need pain relief that lasts for weeks or months, we can help.
Epidural Steroid Injections? Facet Joint Injections? Nerve Branch Root Blocks? What do all of these injections mean, and how do they affect the body?
To learn more about interventional pain management, and how pain management injections may help you.
Non-Surgical Pain Relief in MA
At Bay State Pain Associates, Our highly trained, board-certified pain doctors inject a combination of local anesthetic and anti-inflammatory medication at the source of your pain, providing rapid relief that can last for weeks, months, or even longer for some patients. Repeat injections can be administered if your doctor approves it.
Our interventional pain management doctor are here with one goal: To relieve chronic pain and help our patients return to being their former active selves. Instead of relying on medication, we intervene in a much more effective manner using a vast array of therapies such as pain management injections, to help relieve pain. We aim to improve one’s quality of life and help to regain function and mobility.
Pain relief from these injections may occur within a few hours or may take 1 to 2 weeks to take effect, such as in RFA. Initially, there may be some restriction of physical activity, following which, routine activities may be resumed. These treatment injections are commonly used in combination with physical therapy to strengthen the surrounding muscles and restore mobility.
Other types of injections may also be considered depending on the condition being treated.
Minimally Invasive Procedures : Injections
Pain injections are very safe and have an extremely low risk of any complications, especially compared to surgery. we have found pain injections to be a highly effective, non-surgical way to provide lasting relief for muscle, joint, nerve, and radiating pain. They are used to treat a wide variety of orthopedic or neurological conditions and injuries.
Long-term, persistent pain is nothing like the pain of an acute injury or even a really bad case of the flu. In those cases, you may feel bad – really bad – for days or weeks, but the pain gradually lessens, letting you know that you’re on the mend. Chronic pain, on the other hand, is unpredictable and unrelenting. It can occur every day, or it may appear on random days. But there is never any indication you are getting better. With pain like this, you may feel fine one day, then can barely move the next. You will find your life – and plans – in constant flux, never being able to predict when or how the pain will strike.Our purpose and passion are clear: To provide best-in-class pain management solutions to those who need it most.
The injections we perform include:
- Celiac Plexus Block
- Epidural Steroid Injection
- Genicular Nerve Block
- Joint Injections
- Lidocaine Infusion
- Lumbar Radiofrequency Neurotomy
- Lumbar Sympathetic Nerve Block
- Medial Branch Block
- Occipital Nerve Block
- Radio Frequency Denervation
- Stellate Ganglion Block
- Transforaminal Epidural Steroid Injection
- Trigger Point Injections
- Discography
- Facet Joint Injection
- Joint Injections
- Kyphoplasty
- Minimally Invasive Spine Treatments
- Nerve Block
- Trans-foraminal Epidural Injection
- Radiofrequency Ablation
- Sacroiliac Joint Injection
- Selective Nerve Root Block
- Trigger Point Injection
- Vertebroplasty
- Vertiflex Procedure
- Whiplash Treatment
Diagnostic injections typically deliver an anesthetic medication near the suspected source of pain, such as a facet joint or a spinal nerve. If temporary pain relief is achieved until the effect of the local anesthetic wears off, it can be inferred that the specific region is the source of the pain.
When considered in conjunction with a patient's history, physical exam, and imaging studies, diagnostic injections can help guide further treatment.
The Role of Medical Imaging in Spinal Injections
Spinal injections are almost always performed under the guidance of fluoroscopy (live x-ray) or ultrasound. A contrast dye is injected into the tissues to make sure the needle is accurately placed at the suspected site of pain. Medical imaging also helps prevent injury and further complications that may be caused by injecting into adjacent structures such as blood vessels.
In general, these injections carry a small risk of false-positive/negative responses based on the technique used and/or amount of medication given.
Therapeutic injections using fluoroscopic guidance may not be given during pregnancy or when an infection or bleeding disorder is present.
How Injections Relieve Pain
Injections can deliver medication directly to the anatomic location that generates pain, which may provide more neck or back pain relief than oral medications.
Injections for neck and/or back pain may work in one of the following ways:
- Deliver a steroid and/or other pain-relieving medication into the area that is the source of pain to reduce inflammation and numb the pain.
- Create a heat lesion (radiofrequency ablation) on a pain-transmitting nerve to prevent it from sending pain signals to the brain.
Injections can also be used to help determine the anatomic structure in the spine that could potentially be the source of pain, such as a herniated disc or a compressed nerve.
Injections are a nonsurgical treatment option for acute or chronic neck or back pain. They are considered to treat spinal pain after other nonsurgical measures such as medications and/or physical therapy have been tried, but before surgery is considered. Injections can provide pain relief and help determine the source of a patient’s pain.
Less Common Injections for Neck and Back Pain Relief
Less commonly, pain from other joints or nerves in the spine may be treated with injections. A few examples include:
- Stellate ganglion block—treats head, neck, and/or upper limb pain stemming from the stellate or cervicothoracic ganglion (a group of nerves) in the lower cervical spine.
- Costovertebral joint injections—treats upper back and rib pain stemming from the joint between the vertebral body and the rib in the thoracic spine.
- Costotransverse joint injections—treats upper back and rib pain stemming from the joint between the transverse process of the vertebra and the rib in the thoracic spine.
Types of Spinal Injections
Types of Spinal Injections Select from the following links to learn more about minimally invasive techniques and procedures for neck and back in use at Bay State Pain Associates
There are a lot of options, and thus a lot of choices and decisions, when it comes to choosing pain injections.
Therapeutic injections are usually used to treat neck or back pain stemming from a facet joint, spinal nerve, and/or an intervertebral disc.
Commonly administered injections for neck and back pain are:
Epidural injections—deposit the medication, typically steroids, in the epidural space of the spine.
Epidural injections- This injection is common for lower back pain but may also help with upper back and neck pain. When injected, steroidal medication is injected into the epidural space around the spinal cord. The medication reduces inflammation and pain.
Epidural injections of cortisone may reduce the inflammation and/or swelling of the nerves in the epidural space resulting in decreased pain, tingling and numbness. The procedure involves inserting a needle of a long lasting steroid (cortisone) through the skin and deeper tissues into the epidural space. The epidural space is the area surrounding the spinal cord and the nerves coming out of it. One or more injections may be needed to relieve symptoms.
Cervical Epidural Steroid Injection
Epidural Steroid Injections for Back Pain and Leg Pain
Lumbar Transforaminal Epidural Steroid Injections
Selective nerve root block injections- are another common pain management injection. These injections deliver an anesthetic close to particular nerves, in an effort to interrupt nerve signals before they can get to the brain, where they would register as pain. These injections are used to treat pain caused by inflamed nerves and can be used to help identify the source of your pain.
- target a specific spinal nerve and deposit medication around the nerve at the point where it exits the intervertebral foramen (bony opening between adjacent vertebrae).
Selective nerve root block injections
Joint injections deliver medication into the joints for quick relief of pain and inflammation.
Joint injections
Facet joint injections—treat pain stemming from a specific facet joint.
Facet joint injections
Medial branch blocks—deposit medication around the medial branches of spinal nerves. The medial branch is a nerve that sends pain signals to the brain from an arthritic facet joint. An injection directed around the medial branch can relieve neck pain and also be used to treat headaches stemming from the neck. An injection into the facet joints can be used to confirm an arthritis diagnosis or treat the pain from spinal osteoarthritis.
Medial branch blocks
Sacroiliac (SI) joint injections—treat pain originating from the SI joint, which connects the spine to the pelvis.- Sacroiliac Joint Steroid Injection designed to diagnose and treat pain and inflammation from sacroiliac joint dysfunction.
Sacroiliac (SI) joint injections
Radiofrequency ablation (RFA)—treats pain by lesioning a medial or lateral branch nerve of the facet or SI joint.- Lumbar radiofrequency neurotomy reduces or eliminates pain from damaged facet or sacroiliac joints by disrupting nerves that carry pain signals.
Radiofrequency ablation (RFA)
Trigger point injections can help relax knots of muscles that may be causing pain in other parts of the body (for example, a trigger point in the neck is a common cause of tension headaches).
