Treatment Options - Medial Branch Blocks

Medial Branch Blocks

When facet joints are the source of pain, medial branch nerves are the small nerve branches responsible for communicating this pain from the spine to the brain. Medial branch blocks are a treatment procedure used to alleviate facet joint pain.

Physicians typically use medial branch blocks as a diagnostic test when facet joint injections or other procedures have not provided long-term pain relief.

Blocking the medial branch nerves temporarily stops the transmission of pain signals from the facet joints to the brain. This procedure blocks the medial branch with a local anesthetic and can help determine if a more permanent blocking—such as with a radiofrequency ablation—of these nerves would provide long-term pain relief.

For medial branch blocks, physicians numb a small area of skin and then use an X-ray to guide a thin needle towards the specific nerve being tested. One or several nerves may be injected with a small amount of numbing medicine, depending on the location of the pain.