Medical Branch Nerve Blocks - Facet Block
Facet Blocks are used to diagnose and occasionally treat a number of painful conditions, including twisting work or sports injuries, low back pain without disk disease, facet arthritis, and pain after back surgery without new disk disease. Our pain managment professionals at Saint Anthony's Health Center in Alton, Illinois, use facet blocks as a diagnostic test to determine if the patient will benefit from a facet radiofrequency rhizotomy.
Occasionally a steroid will be used with the anesthetic and injected into the joint to reduce inflammation.
The actual procedure may take only 20 to 30 minutes. But you need to allow sufficient time for pre-procedure nursing assessment, the procedure preparation, and recovery time. On average , you should plan to spend 2 hours in the facility.
The injection consists of a mixture of local anesthetic (like lidocaine or bupivacaine) and a steroid medication. The choice of local anesthetic and steroid is dependent on location of the block and the desired duration of effects.
- Do not eat solid food for at least 2 hours before procedure.
- Take your medications as usual, unless your doctor tell you otherwise.
- Someone should come with you to drive you home.
- If you are diabetic consult with doctor prior to procedure.
- If you are on aspirin or coumadin therapy, you will need to stop it, prior to the procedure.
- Be sure to notify your doctor prior to the day of your procedure.
During the procedure, patients may feel some slight pressure or discomfort.
If the injection blocked the patient’s pain effectively-- but only for a short time-- additional injections may be ordered. Other procedures, such as ,Radiofrequency Rhizotomy, may be considered for more permanent relief.
For some patients, the pain relief can be long-term; however, it is unusual for one block to completely relieve pain for a long period of time. You will be given specific instructions at the time of your discharge to home. A graph will be sent home with you in order to plot your pain. Information obtained from the graph will help your doctor to better assess your treatment plan.
It is difficult to say if the injection will help or not. Generally speaking, the patients who have recent onset of pain may respond much better than ones with longer standing pain. Please keep in mind that this is a diagnostic procedure, meant to help us find the cause of your pain. Even a procedure that does not provide pain relief, will provide your doctor with valuable information about the mechanism of your pain. Thus getting you one step closer to solving the problem.
Unless there are complications, you should be able to return to work the next day or so. The most common thing you may feel is soreness in and around the injection sites.
For more information on Saint Anthony's Center for Pain Management, please call: 618/474-4866.