Medical terminology is rife with words it might just as well be Greek to those of us who are not in the field. Some of the terms can even sound a bit scary. Take ‘medial branch nerve block’. It might be intimidating enough to cause a patient to say, “no thank you.”
Perhaps your doctor has recommended the procedure. First and foremost, you have nothing to worry about. Also known as MBNB, the procedure is safe and minimally invasive. If standard injections don’t bother you, the MBNB procedure should not be a big deal.
The second thing to note is that MBNB is more of a diagnostic procedure than anything else. It is not designed to fix your problem or permanently relieve your pain. Rather, doctors rely on MBNB to confirm a diagnosis of facet joint syndrome. If the treatment relieves pain, the doctor’s diagnosis is correct. If it doesn’t, the doctor needs to look for another cause.
Facet Joints and Their Medial Branches
The pain medicine experts at LoneStarPainMedicine.com explain that the spine is held together by a series of facet joints. Each joint is connected to two tiny nerves known as medial branches. Those nerves conduct signals from the joints to the brain.
A person dealing with facet joint syndrome will complain of pain in the back. The pain will be fairly isolated due to the fact that it is associated with specific joints. For the record, facet joint syndrome can be the result of osteoarthritis, inflammation, trauma, or other issues.
When facet joints are inflamed or otherwise injured, they send pain signals to the brain through their associated medial branches. Preventing those nerves from sending pain signals confirms what a doctor suspects: a problem with the facet joints. Enter the medial branch nerve block.
A Temporary Interruption
Once complete, an MBNB temporarily interrupts the normal functioning of the medial branches. Pain signals are temporarily stopped in their tracks. As for the procedure itself, it is pretty simple. Here is how the experts at Lone Star explain it:
- Prep – The patient is asked to lie face down on an examination table. A local anesthetic is used to numb the skin at the injection site.
- Insertion – Once the local anesthetic has kicked in, a needle is inserted into the back. The doctor uses fluoroscopy to guide the needle to the correct location.
- Injection – With the needle in the exact spot, the doctor injects a small amount of local anesthetic. Lidocaine or bupivacaine are both popular choices.
- Removal – The needle is then removed and the site is bandaged.
The entire procedure only takes 15 to 30 minutes. Assuming that the cause of the patient’s pain is a problem with the facet joints, pain relief will be immediate. Such relief indicates that the targeted facet joint is the source of the patient’s problem. From there, a doctor will recommend a more long-term solution.
If pain relief isn’t experienced following MBNB, then the targeted facet joint is not the problem. The doctor will have to look for something else. A patient could be experiencing pain because of muscle strains, disk problems, etc.
A Procedure With Minimal Risk
The medial branch nerve block is a procedure with minimal risk. Soreness and bruising at the injection site are common, as they are with all types of injections. Patients also experience temporary numbness in the skin and across the back as the anesthetic spreads.
If your doctor has recommended MBNB, there is no need to panic. He’s hoping the procedure will confirm his diagnosis of facet joint syndrome.