Pain Management
Pain unfortunately affects millions of patients each year and can significantly impact daily activities and your quality of life. The Vascular and Interventional Specialists at North County Vascular are experts in a variety of interventional pain procedures that can diagnose and treat both acute and chronic pain.
Epidural Steroid Injections (ESIs)
- ESIs are minimally-invasive procedures that deliver steroid and/or local anesthetic directly to the source of pain and work to reduce inflammation and improve symptoms. These injections can be performed in the lumbar (lower back), cervical (neck), and sometimes thoracic (mid-back) areas. Good candidates for ESIs include patients with sciatica (pinched nerve), bulging discs, spinal stenosis, or degenerative disc disease. Relief from a single injection can last for weeks or to up to a year when performed as a series of injections.
Vertebroplasty and Kyphoplasty
- Vertebroplasty and kyphoplasty are minimally-invasive procedures that inject bone cement into fractured vertebral bodies (compression fracture) caused by osteoporosis or certain cancers. The bone cement helps stabilize the fracture which reduces pain and decreases or eliminates the need for pain medication, helping patients get back to normal activities.
Joint injections
- Joint injections are minimally-invasive treatment options for patients who have joint pain caused by arthritis (“wear-and-tear”), bursitis, or inflammatory conditions such as rheumatoid arthritis. These injections deliver steroid and/or local anesthetic directly to the targeted joint to reduce inflammation and improve pain symptoms caused by joints. Most commonly these procedures are performed to relief pain in the hips, knees, or shoulders and can also provide relief from pain in the elbows, wrists, or ankles.
Facet and sacroiliac injections
- Facet and sacroiliac injections are minimally-invasive treatment options to treat pain caused by inflammation at the connection between two vertebral bodies (“facets”) or from inflammation where the lumbar spine and pelvis come together (“sacroiliitis”). A combination of steroid and/or local anesthetic is delivered into the joint capsule or surrounding tissues to reduce pain. Facet injections also have particular diagnostic value and can help determine if patients are candidates for nerve ablation.
Radiofrequency ablation (RFA)
- RFA is a minimally-invasive treatment option where a pain-transmitting nerve is heated by a needle causing a lesion that prevents the pain signals from reaching the brain. Patients will typically have a diagnostic injection performed several weeks beforehand to help determine the source of the pain, such as a facet joint. Relief lasts until the nerve regenerates, usually a few months and up to 2 years.