Top Back Pain Treatments
What is the Treatment for Acute Painful Vertebral Compression?
Kyphoplasty is offered for patients with acute painful compression fractures of the spine. These fractures typically cause severe pain and may lead to the patients being wheelchair bound or bedridden, with severely limited daily activities.
What is Kyphoplasty?
The kyphoplasty procedure is a minimally invasive, non-surgical, outpatient treatment performed through one or two needle holes for each spine fracture. The needles are inserted using the latest in high resolution imaging technology. Balloons are inserted through the needle(s) to re-expand the bone; the resultant cavity is filled with a bone cement to internally cast the broken bone. Kyphoplasty procedures typically result in greater than 90 percent of patients experiencing near-complete or complete pain relief.
What are Epidural Steroid Injections (ESI)?
A minimally invasive outpatient procedure performed by injecting a mixture of a steroid and long-acting anesthetic into the epidural space (a space containing nerves and nerve roots), using X-ray guidance. ESI are typically performed for central (axial) back or neck pain. Some indications for ESI include back pain from degenerative/bulging/herniated discs, spinal stenosis, and spinal nerve root inflammation (such as shingles).
What is a Selective Nerve Root Block?
A minimally invasive outpatient procedure is an injection of a small amount of steroid and numbing medication around a very specific nerve root/spinal nerve that exits out of the spinal cord. It uses live X-ray guidance (fluoroscopy) to ensure the medication is delivered to the correct location. The main indication for a SNRB is a patient with peripheral (arm or leg) pain, which is felt to be secondary to compression/inflammation of a specific nerve root(s).
What are Medial Facet or Medial Branch Blocks?
Facet blocks and medial branch blocks are typically ordered for patients who have pain primarily in their back coming from arthritic changes in the facet joints or for mechanical low back pain.
A facet block is an injection of local anesthetic and steroid into a joint in the spine. A medial branch block is similar but the medication is placed outside the joint space near the nerve that supplies the joint called the medial branch (steroid may or may not be used).
A medial branch block interrupts the sensory nerve supply to the involved facet joint through the use of a precise administration of an anesthetic agent and steroid. After a local skin anesthetic is applied, the physician uses fluoroscopy (x-ray) guidance to place a needle along the nerves that supply the inflamed joint.
You may require multiple injections depending upon how many joints are involved.
What are Sacroiliac Joint Injections?
SI joint injections are minimally invasive, outpatient procedures performed by injecting a mixture of a steroid and long-acting anesthetic into the SI joint, using X-ray guidance.
