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Originally Posted by Discyphor
To all readers...I am a medical represenative and am merely providing support for questions regarding product and procedure.
Each level is independently tested. The patient is asked to rate his her pain prior to procedure and at conclusion of catheter placement for a baseline. This pain scale used is the Visual Analog Pain Scale (VAS) or the Numeric Pain Rating Scale (NPRS). Patient’s range of motion is also noted or those specific activites that create patient's pain on set (i.e sitting, standing, flexion, "it hurts when i do this"). Patient is then injected with 0.5 - 0.7 cc of anesthetic, and upon anesthetic onset, asked again to rate his or her pain level (and applicable range of motion). Comparison pain scores and range of motion are measured for anesthetic disc improvement and additional valuable information for consideration of treatment options of discogenic back pain. A two point drop or greater in pain score would indicate that the disc level is a pain generator.
To test if the test is still anesthetized most physicians use saline and test range of motion or their pain generating activites.
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7cc to 1cc of lidocaine typically takes 10 to 20 min to onset so the patient is tested and measured at that level at 5, 10, 15, and 20 min intervals. Once information is collected at that level the next level is injected with .7cc to 1cc of lidiocaine. Most physicians will go from least suspected disk to most suspected disk.
In my experience the average levels tested would be 2-3 most often L3/4-L5-S1.