Conditions and Procedures
Procedures
Caudal Steroid Injection
This outpatient procedure is an injection of a steroid-anesthetic medication through an opening in the sacrum. The medication can reduce swelling and inflammation of irritated spinal nerves. The injection takes only a few minutes to complete.
Cervical Epidural Steroid Injection
Cervical Facet Radiofrequency Neurotomy
During this minimally-invasive procedure, the physician uses heat from radio waves to treat painful facet joints in your neck. This procedure is also called radiofrequency rhizotomy. It can treat pain that doesn’t respond to medications or to physical therapy.
Cervical Selective Nerve Root Block
This injection targets a painful nerve in your cervical spine. It helps your doctor find which nerve is pressed on by a herniated disc, spinal stenosis or some other problem. It may give you pain relief.
Dekompressor Discectomy
This is a procedure to treat a herniated disc. That’s a bulging disc in your spine. Getting rid of the bulge can relieve pressure on your nerves. It can relieve pain in your lower back and your legs.
Discography
This procedure, also called a “discogram,” helps your doctor find painful spinal discs. It can show the source of pain in your back. To see how it works, let’s watch a discography done in the lumbar spine.
Facet Joint Injections
The facet joints, found on both sides of the back of the spine, can become painfully irritated or inflamed. A facet joint injection may help diagnose the source of a patient’s pain. It can also relieve pain and inflammation.
Lumbar Epidural Steroid Injection
This injection procedure is performed to relieve low back and radiating leg pain. Steroid medication can reduce the swelling and inflammation caused by spinal conditions.
Lumbar Radiofrequency Neurotomy
Lumbar Sympathetic Block
This procedure is an injection that numbs branches of nerves in your lower back. It helps doctors find and treat a number of problems linked to these nerves. Usually, a series of injections is needed to treat a problem.
Lumbar Transforaminal Epidural Steroid Injection
This outpatient procedure is an injection of a steroid-anesthetic medication. The medication can reduce swelling and inflammation of irritated spinal nerves. This procedure is performed to relieve pain in the lower back and pain that radiates from the back to the legs. The injection takes only a few minutes to complete.
Medial Branch Block
This is an injection of numbing medicine. It bathes the medial branch nerves, which attach to the facet joints of your spine. These nerves hurt when facet joints are injured or diseased. The injection helps find the source of your pain. And it may relieve your pain for a brief time.
Percutaneous Disc Nucleoplasty
This minimally-invasive procedure uses a small needle and advanced radiofrequency technology to reduce a herniated disc, quickly relieving pain in most patients. The procedure may be performed on an outpatient basis using a gentle, relaxing medicine and local anesthetic.
RACZ Caudal Neurolysis
This injection, generally performed as an outpatient procedure under local anesthesia, relieves low back and leg pain most often caused by scarring from a prior back surgery. The procedure is performed with the patient lying face down with a cushion placed under the stomach.
Sacroiliac Joint Steroid Injection
This injection procedure is performed to relieve pain caused by arthritis in the sacroiliac joint where the spine and hip bone meet. The steroid medication can reduce swelling and inflammation in the joint.
Spinal Cord Stimulator Implant
Spinal cord stimulation (also called SCS) uses electrical impulses to relieve chronic pain of the back, arms and legs. It is believed that electrical pulses prevent pain signals from being received by the brain. SCS candidates include people who suffer from neuropathic pain and for whom conservative treatments have failed.
Stellate Ganglion Block
A stellate ganglion nerve block is an injection that numbs branches of nerves in your neck. This helps doctors find and treat a number of problems linked to the nerves. Treatment may require a series of injections.
Thoracic Epidural Steroid Injection
This outpatient procedure is an injection performed to relieve pain in the upper back.
Trigger Point Injections
This outpatient procedure is designed to reduce or relieve the pain of trigger points. These small, tender knots can form in muscles or in the fascia (the soft, stretchy connective tissue that surrounds muscles and organs). The trigger point injection procedure takes only a few minutes to complete.
Conditions
Anatomy of the Spine
The spinal column is the body’s main support structure. Its thirty-three bones, called vertebrae, are divided into five regions: cervical, thoracic, lumbar, sacral and coccygeal.
Cervical Radiculopathy
This condition is an irritation or compression of one or more nerve roots in the cervical spine. Because these nerves travel to the shoulders, arms and hands, an injury in the cervical spine can cause symptoms in these areas. Cervical radiculopathy may result from a variety of problems with the bones and tissues of the cervical spinal column.
Coccydynia
This condition is an inflammation of the tip of the tailbone, called the coccyx. It causes pain and tenderness between the buttocks.
Degenerative Disc Disease
This condition is a weakening of one or more vertebral discs, which normally act as a cushion between the vertebrae. This condition can develop as a natural part of the aging process, but it may also result from injury to the back.
Facet Joint Syndrome
This condition is a deterioration of the facet joints, which help stabilize the spine and limit excessive motion. The facet joints are lined with cartilage and are surrounded by a lubricating capsule that enables the vertebrae to bend and twist.
Herniated Disc (Cervical)
This condition is a rupture of one of the vertebral discs in your neck. A herniated disc can allow disc material to press harmfully against the spinal nerves.
Herniated Discs
Between the vertebrae of your spine are soft discs. They let your spine twist and bend. They absorb shocks. But if damaged, the disc’s soft center can push through the disc wall. That’s a herniated disc. This bulge presses against nerves in your spine.
Hip Arthritis
This type of arthritis, also called “degenerative joint disease,” is a breakdown of the cartilage in your hip joint. As this protective cartilage wears away, bone rubs against bone. Bony growths called “bone spurs” may form in the joint. Pain from osteoarthritis can keep you from being as active as you like.
Hip Bursitis
This is an irritation or swelling of the trochanteric bursa. This small, fluid-filled sac is found on the outer side of the femur. It acts as a cushion for the iliotibial band, a thick tendon in your leg.
Lumbar Radiculopathy (Sciatica)
This condition is an irritation or compression of one or more nerve roots in the lumbar spine. Because these nerves travel to the hips, buttocks, legs and feet, an injury in the lumbar spine can cause symptoms in these areas. Sciatica may result from a variety of problems with the bones and tissues of the lumbar spinal column.
Myofascial Pain Syndrome
This is a chronic pain disorder. It affects the muscles and the connective tissue (called the “fascia”) that surrounds them. With this syndrome, you may develop sensitive areas on your body called “trigger points.” When these places are pressed or stressed, you feel pain. This condition can affect muscles throughout your body.
Phantom Limb Pain
If you have lost a limb or another part of your body, you may feel painful sensations that seem to be coming from the missing part. This phenomenon is called “phantom pain.” It is common among amputees. It can become a chronic problem for some people.
Post Laminectomy Syndrome
This condition, also called “failed back surgery syndrome,” is a type of chronic pain. It can develop in some people after spine surgery.
Scoliosis
This condition is an abnormal curvature of the spine. It most often develops in early childhood, just before a child reaches puberty.
Spinal Stenosis
Your spinal nerves travel through your spinal canal and exit through openings we call “foramen.” If any of these spaces are too narrow, your nerves become compressed. We say you have “spinal stenosis.” It’s a problem that most often happens in the neck and lower back.
Spinal Stenosis (Thoracic)
This condition affects the thoracic spine between the neck and the lower back. It is a narrowing of the spinal canal that results from degeneration of bones in the spine, disc herniation, or thickening of the tissues that surround the spinal cord.
Spondylolisthesis
This condition occurs when a lumbar vertebra slips out of place. It slides forward, distorting the shape of your spine. This may compress the nerves in the spinal canal. The nerves that exit the foramen (open spaces on the sides of your vertebrae) may also be compressed. These compressed nerves can cause pain and other problems.
Where Back Pain Begins
Lower back pain is a common problem that severely impacts the quality of your life. It can limit your ability to be active. It can cause you to miss work. Many different causes may lead to pain in your lower back.
Where Neck Pain Begins
Neck pain is a common problem that severely impacts the quality of your life. It can limit your ability to be active. It can cause you to miss work. Many different causes may lead to pain in your neck.
Whiplash (CAD Syndrome)
This is a common neck injury. It happens when your neck jerks back and forth quickly and violently. Your spine bends past its normal range of motion. This can injure the vertebrae of your cervical spine. It can damage the supporting ligaments and muscles in your neck.
Whiplash Headache
This is a chronic headache. It can develop after a whiplash injury (a violent back-and-forth jerking of the neck).
