Facet joint injection.
Diagnose and treat in one visit.
Image-guided injection of anesthetic and corticosteroid directly into the small posterior joints of the spine — both a diagnostic test and a therapeutic intervention for axial back and neck pain.
The joints that carry your spine in motion.
Facet joints are the paired posterior joints connecting each spinal vertebra to the next. They guide motion and bear load. When arthritis, injury, or chronic mechanical stress inflames them, they generate dull, achy, well-localized neck or back pain — often worse with extension, rotation, or prolonged standing. A facet injection delivers anesthetic and a small dose of corticosteroid directly into the joint capsule.
Fluoroscopic guidance into a joint the size of a fingernail.
These joints are small. We perform every facet injection under live fluoroscopy, with contrast confirmation that the needle is intra-articular before any medication is delivered. The injection itself takes seconds per level. You are positioned prone, the skin is numbed, and the appointment is over in twenty to thirty minutes. No sedation is required unless requested.
Indicated when facets are the suspected pain generator.
Facet injections are appropriate for axial neck or low-back pain with characteristics pointing at the facet joints: tenderness over the paraspinal region, pain with extension or oblique loading, imaging showing facet arthropathy. We use them both diagnostically — to confirm the joints are the source before considering radiofrequency ablation — and therapeutically, for patients who get sustained relief from corticosteroid alone.
Anesthetic is immediate. Steroid builds over days.
The local anesthetic gives a temporary window of relief during the first few hours — diagnostically useful. The corticosteroid effect takes three to seven days to develop. Some patients get months of relief from a single injection. Many use facet injections as a bridge to radiofrequency ablation. Resume normal activity the same day; avoid heavy lifting for forty-eight hours.
Stop accepting the downtime.
A facet injection is both a diagnosis and a treatment. Schedule a consultation at any Triumph location.