Lumbar Medial Branch Block in Houston, Texas
About one in five patients with chronic low back pain has facet joint pain. There is no imaging finding that proves it and no physical exam maneuver that confirms it. The only reliable way to identify it is to anesthetize the nerves that carry sensation from those joints and see whether the pain stops.
That is what a lumbar medial branch block does.
What is a Lumbar Medial Branch Block?
Each facet joint in the lumbar spine receives sensory innervation from two small nerves called medial branches. A medial branch block places a tiny volume of local anesthetic onto those nerves under fluoroscopic guidance.
If your familiar pain substantially disappears for the duration of the anesthetic, the facet joint at that level is confirmed as the pain generator. If it does not, the facet joint is not the source — which is equally valuable information.
Diagnostic First, Therapeutic Second
This is fundamentally a diagnostic test. Its purpose is to determine whether you are a candidate for radiofrequency ablation, which provides durable relief by interrupting those same nerves.
Most protocols require two separate positive blocks on different days before proceeding to ablation. This double-block standard exists because a single block has a meaningful false-positive rate. Doing it properly means one extra visit; skipping it means a meaningful fraction of patients undergo an ablation that was never going to work.
Who It Helps
- Axial low back pain without radiation below the knee
- Pain worse with extension, standing, or twisting
- Pain eased by sitting or forward flexion
- Morning stiffness that loosens with movement
- Tenderness over the paraspinal region
- Degenerative facet arthropathy on imaging, correlated with symptoms
Confirming the Source at Remix Medical
There is no substitute for knowing precisely where pain originates. Contact Remix Medical to schedule a consultation with a board-certified pain management physician in Houston.