• Alan Bani, Uwe Spetzger, and Joachim M Gilsbach.
• Department of Neurosurgery, Klinikum Duisburg-Wedau, Duisburg, Germany. drabani@msn.com
• Neurosurg Focus. 2002 Aug 15;13(2):E11.

ObjectThe authors evaluated the effectiveness of using a facet joint block with local anesthetic agents and or steroid medication for the treatment of low-back pain in a medium-sized series of patients.MethodsOver a period of 4 years, the authors performed 715 facet joint injections in 230 patients with variable-length histories of low-back pain. The main parameter for the success or failure of this treatment was the relief of the pain. For the first injection--mainly a diagnostic procedure--the authors used a local anesthetic (1 ml bupivacaine 1%). In cases of good response, betamethasone was injected in a second session to achieve a longer-lasting effect. Long-lasting relief of the low-back pain and/or leg pain was reported by 43 patients (18.7%) during a mean followup period of 10 months. Thirty-five patients (15.2%) noticed a general improvement in their pain. Twenty-seven patients (11.7%) reported relief of low-back pain but not leg pain. Nine patients (3.9%) suffered no back pain but still leg pain. One hundred sixteen patients (50.4%), however, experienced no improvement of pain at all. In two cases the procedure had to be interrupted because of severe pain. There were no cases of infection or hematoma.ConclusionsLumbar facet joint block is a minimally invasive procedure to differentiate between facet joint pain and other causes of lower-back pain. The procedure seems to be useful for distinguishing between facet joint pain from postoperative pain due to inappropriate neural decompression after lumbar surgery. It can be also recommended as a possible midterm intervention for chronic low-back pain.

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