Avoid heat in the injection area for 72 hours. Hot compresses, saunas or steam baths are not allowed during this time. You can immediately resume your regular medication regimen, including pain relievers, anti-inflammatory drugs, and blood thinners. It's important to keep moving after the injection.
This will help increase blood flow and reduce stiffness. Walking is a great way to start. You should also avoid lifting heavy objects for at least 24 hours after the procedure. If you experience any pain, you can take over-the-counter pain relievers.
It's important to follow up with your doctor as scheduled. As mentioned, you should not drive on the day of the injection into the facet joint. If your doctor used sedation, do not drive for at least 24 hours after the injection. If you experience any pain relief with the initial injection into the facet joint, your healthcare provider may suggest that you try repeating the injection to see if it is still useful.
If the medication is injected directly into the joint, the procedure is called facet intra-articular injection or simply injection into the facet joint. Although the main function of facet joints is to support the spine and help it move, in some cases, if there is an injury or problem in the joint or in the surrounding structure of muscles or ligaments, they can become a source of pain. In some cases, medical imaging tests, such as MRIs or CT scans, may not detect inflammation or injury to the facet joint, so your doctor may suggest an injection to rule out that the facet joint is the source of pain. If the injection into the facet joint is successful, you should expect to experience pain relief for several months.
If you experience chronic back or neck pain that has lasted more than six weeks and other interventions haven't helped, your doctor may suggest that you try facet joint injections to try to relieve pain. Very small needles are placed inside the joint capsule and a small volume (usually about 1 ml) is placed in each joint. An injection into the facet joint is exactly what it sounds like: the doctor injects a medication to see if it helps relieve pain. A facet joint injection is a procedure in which analgesic and anti-inflammatory medications are injected into facet joints to reduce pain.
Your provider may also inject a steroid medication into the facet joint, which can help reduce pain and swelling in and around the joint. If the injection does not relieve pain, it may be because the injection did not reach the source of the pain or because the pain is not caused by facet joints. If you suffer from chronic back or neck pain, you may be a good candidate for facet joint injections. Facet joints are a pair of small joints located at the back of the spine, between each of the vertebrae.
You're more likely to notice faster relief if the joints where the injection was given were the main source of pain. Injecting into the facet joint reduces pain in the small joints at the back of the spine, between the vertebrae.
Leave Message