Hello,

I am writing to ask about the actual clinical usefulness of lumbar facet injections followed by facet nerve oblation vs. botox injections into the lumbar spine?

My orthopedic surgeon and pain management doc both feel that at this point, that the main generator of pain in my back and legs is l4/l5 facet nerves and possibly l5/s1 facet nerves. I have uncontrolable muscle spasms and at time alternating leg pain to the point that I just simply have to stop walking and if there is a place to sit, sit down and wait the pain out.

What makes me nervous is the fact that the facet injections are not being given high marks in the consumer world (i.e. consumer reports medical guide) and also my main resource of information regarding my treatments is spineuniverse.com and they give conflictory reports as to the usefulness of lumbar facet injections as well as nerve oblation.

The actual plan of care from my ortho and pain doc is: Regular facet injections with anesthetic/steroid then if that is partly successful we will do full anesthetic injections directly into the nerve root/facet joint nerve and then if that works, we do the oblation.

After not having great success with the charite I am kind of worried about these nerve ideas because I already have sclerosis at l4/5 and l5/s1 and I worry that with that kind of procedure, the sclerosis will bet bigger and possibly cause more problems.

Thank you for donating you time and thank you for any input you may have to offer,
Brian