Had medial branch block.....

[diver110]

Was 50%-70% better of over the following several hours. Is that enough to justify a rhyzotomy?

[Keano16]

Originally Posted by diver110

Was 50%-70% better of over the following several hours. Is that enough to justify a rhyzotomy?

I can conclude that you had relief for several hours because of the local anesthetic.

You should monitor your situation 2-3 days after infiltrations, steroids should show results then.

If you don't see results in few days there are two possibilities:
1. Facet Joints are not source of your pain
2. Doctor missed the place for infiltration (due to wrong placement of the needle or your abnormal anatomy)

Because of the reason number 2 I mentioned above, I am strongly against BLIND fluroscopicaly guided percutaneous RF rhizotomy. Endoscopic rhizotomy is much better and long-term solution.

Kind regards

[diver110]

Originally Posted by Keano16

I can conclude that you had relief for several hours because of the local anesthetic.

You should monitor your situation 2-3 days after infiltrations, steroids should show results then.

If you don't see results in few days there are two possibilities:
1. Facet Joints are not source of your pain
2. Doctor missed the place for infiltration (due to wrong placement of the needle or your abnormal anatomy)

Because of the reason number 2 I mentioned above, I am strongly against BLIND fluroscopicaly guided percutaneous RF rhizotomy. Endoscopic rhizotomy is much better and long-term solution.

Kind regards

As I understand it, I was not given steroids (I was previously, did not work). They only told me to monitor the block over the first few hours. It was administered under xray....