What are the cervical facet joints, and why are facet joint injections helpful?
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Cervical, Thoracic and Lumbar Facet Injection Information
Published June 25th, 2007 in Pain Management. 0 Comments
WHAT IS PROLOTHERAPY?
Prolotherapy is a non surgical treatment for musculoskeletal pain (neck, back and joint pain). It enables your body to produce new cells that will strengthen tendons and ligaments. Prolotherapy consists of injections of proliferents to create growth of normal cells. The injections consist of a solution, which stimulates growth factor production. Growth Factors are proteins that stimulate growth or healing of tissues. Prolotherapy regenerates NORMAL tissue.
WHAT DOES PROLOTHERAPY TREAT?
Prolotherapy is an effective treatment for arthritis, back and neck pain, sports injuries, joint aches, fibromyalgia, carpal tunnel, frozen shoulder, TMJ, rotator cuff injury, plantar faciitis, herniated discs, sciatica, and many, many others.
HOW ARE LIGAMENTS INVOLVED?
Most musculoskeletal pain is caused by ligament dysfunction. Ligaments are structures that hold bones and joints together. When ligaments are injured (car accident, falls, repetitive trauma) joints become dysfunctional and cause pain and muscle spasm. Dysfunctional joints and muscle spasm cause pain and radiating symptoms.
ARE YOU A CANDIDATE FOR PROLOTHERAPY?
Prolotherapy stimulates the body to repair the painful area. For the patient who has localized areas of pain or the person who has had a recent injury from an accident, Prolotherapy is a very effective treatment to strengthen those specific areas and eliminate the pain. Realize, however, that Prolotherapy starts the growth of new healthy, strong tissue. Your body—your own immune system—grows the tissue. For the person who has terrible digestion, chronic fatigue, irritable bladder, and a host of other chronic nutritional, hormonal and/or allergic problems, these deficiencies and illnesses should be corrected so the body will be able to respond to Prolotherapy.
The ideal Prolotherapy candidate has the following:
• Pain originating from a ligament or tendon
• Strong immune system
• Willingness to improve and receive follow-up visits
• Healthy diet
• Positive mental outlook
Quite often leg pain or foot pain is not caused by a problem in the leg or foot, but rather by a condition in the lower back. Diagnosis of leg pain and other lower extremity symptoms should focus not only on the legs and hips, but should also include examination of the low back. In fact, with many low back problems, there is actually little or no low back pain. Instead, there may be leg pain, foot pain, and/or lower extremity numbness or weakness.
Benefits of Epidural Injections
Published June 18th, 2007 in Epidural Injections and Pain Management. 0 CommentsPatients will find that the benefits of an epidural steroid injection include a reduction in pain, primarily in leg pain. Patients seem to have a better response when the epidural steroid injections are coupled with an organized therapeutic exercise program.
While the effects of an epidural steroid injection tend to be temporary—providing relief from pain for one week up to one year—an epidural injection can be very beneficial for patients during an episode of severe back pain. Importantly, it can provide sufficient pain relief to allow the patient to progress with their rehabilitation program.
Epidural steroid injection success rates
An epidural steroid injection is generally successful in relieving pain for approximately 50% of patients. If a patient does not experience any back pain or leg pain relief from the first epidural injection, further injections will probably not be beneficial. However, if there is some improvement in back pain or leg pain, one to two additional epidural steroid injections may be recommended.
Epidural Injections
Published June 15th, 2007 in Epidural Injections and Pain Management. 0 Comments
Epidural injections is an integral part of non-surgical management of low back pain, and an epidural injection is typically used to alleviate chronic low back and/or leg pain. While the effects of the injection tend to be temporary - providing relief from pain for one week up to one year - an epidural can be very beneficial for patients during an episode of severe back pain. Importantly, it can provide sufficient pain relief to allow the patient to progress with their rehabilitation program.
An epidural is an injection that delivers medication directly into the epidural space in the spine. Sometimes a flushing solution (either lidocaine or normal saline) is also used to help “flush out” inflammatory proteins from around the area that may be the source of pain.
The epidural space is the space between the dura mater (a membrane) and the vertebral wall and is filled with fat and small blood vessels. It is located just outside the dural sac. The dural sac surrounds the nerve roots and cerebrospinal fluid (the fluid that the nerve roots are bathed in).
Everyone experiences pain at one point or another. It often is an indication that something is wrong.
Each individual is the best judge of his or her own pain. Feelings of pain can range from mild and occasional to severe and constant.
Acute pain begins suddenly and is usually sharp in quality. It serves as a warning of disease or a threat to the body. Acute pain may be caused by many events or circumstances, including:
- Surgery
- Broken bones
- Dental work
- Burns or cuts
- Labor and childbirth
Chronic pain persists despite the fact that an injury has healed. Pain signals remain active in the nervous system for weeks, months, or years. Physical effects include tense muscles, limited mobility, a lack of energy, and changes in appetite. Emotional effects include depression, anger, anxiety, and fear of re-injury. Such a fear may hinder a person’s ability to return to normal work or leisure activities. Common chronic pain complaints include:
- Headache
- Low back pain
- Cancer pain
- Arthritis pain
- Neurogenic pain (pain resulting from damage to nerves)
- Psychogenic pain (pain not due to past disease or injury or any visible sign of damage inside)
Depending upon its severity, pain may be treated in a number of ways. Symptomatic options for the treatment of pain may include one or more of the following:
- Drug treatments such as non-prescription medications like Aleve, Motrin and Tylenol or stronger medications such as morphine, codeine or anesthesia.
- Nerve blocks (the blocking of a group of nerves with local anesthetics)
- Alternative treatments such as acupuncture, relaxation and biofeedback
- Electrical stimulation
- Physical therapy
- Surgery
- Psychological counseling
- Behavior modification
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