Ultrasound Guided Lumbar Facet Block

The lumbar facet joint pain is very common, and it has been identified as a source of the low back pain. A facetjoint block or injection is a minimally invasive method in which a physician injects a small amount of localanesthetic and/or medication to anesthetize a facet joint and provide pain relief. The Facet joint blocks areusually performed under the fluoroscopic guidance or the computed tomography (CT) scanning guidance for aprecise localization of the needle tips and avoidance of probable complications. But the two techniques areassociated with significant radiation doses for both the patient and the physician. Ultrasound is not associatedwith an exposure to hazards of radiation, and equipment is not too expensive, which is portable and can beused as a real-time monitoring tool. Moreover, ultrasound-guided procedures are essentially "office-based"and do not need a radiology suite or operating room. Ultrasound can precisely indicate the injection sites andmonitor the needle insertion and the spread of local anesthetics at the same time. However, US guidance maynot provide clear image acquisition in patients whose anatomic features have particular challenges (e.g.,obesity, degenerative changes, malformations). In addition, US cannot clearly detect an intravascular injectionor inadvertent foraminal spread correctly. The aim of this presentation is to explain more about the technics ofultrasound guided lumbar facet block.