Spinal Injections

Pain Conditions Overview

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Spinal Injections

Arizona Pain Treatment Centers has developed a team of physicians and providers to coordinate spinal injection procedures to treat, diagnose pain and understand the nature of each patient and their conditions.

Spinal injections offer effective, temporary pain relief from a wide range of conditions, including, disc bulges and herniations, spinal stenosis, degenerative disc disease and more.

How are Injections Performed and are They Safe?

Most all of our injections are performed under x-ray guidance (fluoroscopy) to pinpoint the painful structure and to precisely place the needle next to the pain generator with little trauma to surrounding tissues. Injections are performed as an outpatient procedure and typically take as little as 10-15 minutes to perform with no risk of general anesthesia. The skin and muscle will be anesthetized with local anesthetic. Patients are also given the option of receiving IV sedation if they are very nervous or have a phobia of needles.

It is important for patients to realize that spinal injections cannot cure their condition, but rather provide temporary relief from pain, inflammation and other symptoms. These treatments can be repeated if desired in order to prolong the results. Our team highly recommends a combination of conservative care treatment, physical rehab, spine rehab, and/or chiropractic care in conjunction with most spinal and joint injections.

Common spinal injections:

Facet Joint Injection

Epidural Steroid Injections

Lateral Branch Block

Sacroiliac Joint Injection

Note from the Doctor

There are many types of spinal injections that we perform at AZPTC. A comprehensive clinical examination combined with selective diagnostic studies will determine what type of injection is appropriate for a particular patient.

There are two major categories of injections:

1. Diagnostic injections are required when the source of pain has not been clearly identified. During this procedure a local anesthetic will be injected into the suspected painful structure most likely to be causing your pain. You will then be monitored to determine whether the local anesthetic has relieved your pain. If the Diagnostic injection eliminates the pain, then the painful structure and source of pain is identified.

2. Therapeutic steroid injections are used to treat the painful inflamed structure once the source of pain has been identified. Local anesthetic and a medical corticosteroid are injected to the targeted painful structure to reduce and eliminate inflammation, swelling, and pain from the painful structure. The targeted Therapeutic steroid injection will also stabilize nerve membranes and promote healing of the painful structure.