Treatment Options - Selective Nerve Root Block Injections

Selective Nerve Root Block Injections

Selective Nerve Root Blocks are injections used to diagnose the specific source of nerve root pain. Although primarily performed for diagnostic purposes, these injections can also be used to help treat low back and leg pain.

Nerve root pain is trigged when a nerve root becomes compressed or inflamed, and this pain is felt as back pain and leg pain. Physicians perform a selective nerve root block injection to determine which specific nerve is causing the pain.

Selective nerve root blocks are also used therapeutically to relieve pain caused by a lateral disc herniation, which is a disc that ruptures outside the spinal canal.

For this blocking procedure, physicians use fluoroscopy to pinpoint the specific nerve root and then inject a numbing agent and steroid. The nerve root is the location where the nerve exits the hole between the vertebral bodies.

If the injection relieves the pain, it can indicate the pain is being caused by the specific nerve root that has just been injected. The injected steroid can also help to reduce inflammation around the nerve root.