Spine Procedures Specialist

How do spine procedures relieve pain?

The team at Synergy Rehabilitation & Wellness Center offers several types of spine procedures that relieve pain by reducing inflammation and/or blocking nerve signals. 

Inflamed nerves are treated with steroid injections. Though it takes a few days for steroids to take effect, they often result in weeks or months of pain relief.

Nerve signals are blocked using multiple techniques, but they all work by preventing your brain from receiving the pain message. As a result, your pain is significantly relieved or possibly eliminated.

What type of spinal cord injection might I receive?

Spine injections that are frequently performed by the experienced team at Synergy Rehabilitation & Wellness Center include:

Epidural steroid injections

These injections contain steroids and a local anesthetic that effectively blocks pain signals. Epidural steroid injections are placed in the epidural space along your spine at the site of inflamed nerves. They are used to treat conditions such as herniated disks, sciatica or radiculopathy, “slipped” vertebrae or disks, spinal stenosis, and degenerative disc disease.

Facet joint injection and medial branch block

The facet joints are paired structures at the back of each vertebra that enable flexion and extension of your spine. These joints can cause pain due to an injury, poor posture, and arthritis. In many cases, patients complain of pain that’s worse in the morning and with spinal rotation and extension.

Before administering a therapeutic injection to relieve the pain, your provider at Synergy Rehabilitation & Wellness Center performs a diagnostic medial branch block. During a medial branch block, an anesthetic is injected into the nerves that send pain signals from the targeted facet joint.

If the block relieves your pain, it confirms that specific facet joint is the source of your pain. Then your provider can perform a facet joint injection, alleviating your pain by injecting an anti-inflammatory medication and an anesthetic into the joint capsule.

Radiofrequency ablation

Radiofrequency (RF) ablation uses radiofrequency waves to block pain messages traveling through the medial branch nerve, a nerve that sends pain signals from the facet joints in your spine to your brain.

Prior to a radiofrequency ablation, you undergo a diagnostic medial branch block. The block uses an anesthetic to temporarily block pain signals. 

If the block effectively stops your pain, the targeted nerve is verified to be the source of your pain, and you can have RF ablation for longer-lasting pain relief. Radiofrequency ablation provides 8-18 months or longer of pain relief.

During RF ablation, the nerve is ablated (burned) using a needle that precisely delivers RF energy to the nerve. This procedure is also used to treat chronic knee pain by ablating the genicular nerves that send pain signals from the knee to the spine.

How does dorsal column spinal cord stimulation relieve pain?

The dorsal column generally refers to the sensory nerves that carry pain signals up the spinal cord to your brain. Spinal cord stimulation uses a mild electrical impulse to block or scramble pain signals being transmitted through specific nerves in the dorsal column.

To receive spinal cord stimulation, your provider gently threads sensors through the epidural space of your spine, placing the sensors near the specific nerves that are transmitting your pain messages. 

Then a small generator is implanted under your skin that sends electrical impulses to the sensors. You use a remote controller to turn the signals on and off.

The team at Synergy Rehabilitation & Wellness Center performs spine procedures in an outside surgical facility. If you suffer from ongoing pain in your back, neck, arms, or legs, call the office or book an appointment online.