Lumbar Facet Joint Syndrome
With extensive experience in a wide variety of interventional fluoroscopic guided pain management procedures, Dr. Ghaly is in practice with ISPINE, operating in Waterbury and Valley Orthopedic Specialists, operating out of the office in Shelton, Connecticut. He has an expertise in treating complex regional pain syndrome... more
Low back pain (LBP) is the most common pain syndrome and is an enormous burden and cost generator for society. Back pain can be a combination of different elements, including but not limited to, facet joint pain, discogenic pain, vertebrgenic pain, muscular pain, and radicular pain. Let’s start by talking about one of the very common causes of back pain which is mechanical, facet joint syndrome.
Lumbar facet joints (FJ) constitute a common source of pain, accounting for 15–45% of LBP. Facet joint degenerative osteoarthritis is the most frequent form of facet joint pain. History and physical examination may suggest but not confirm facet joint syndrome. Although imaging (radiographs, MRI, CT ) for back pain syndrome is very commonly performed, there are no effective correlations between clinical symptoms and degenerative spinal changes.
Diagnostic positive facet joint block can indicate facet joints as the source of chronic spinal pain. These patients may benefit from specific interventions to eliminate facet joint pain such as neurolysis, by radiofrequency or cryoablation. Radiofrequency ablation of the medial branch that supplies the facet joint, is one of the very commonly done procedures with a great success rate, to eliminate or reduce the mechanical facet joint pain.
