Cervical facet joint injections in the neck and shoulder pain

The effects from cervical facet joint injections in those patients who have been complaining cervical zygapophyseal joint pain were compared. The patients were diagnosed originally as myofascial pain syndrome (MPS), cervical herniated nucleus pulposus (HNP), and whiplash-associated disorders (WAD). Patients with the zygapophyseal joints pain of C5-6 and C6-7 were classified by their pain origin as MPS, HNP, and WAD. All patients had been undergone cervical zygapophyseal joints injections with the mixture of lidocaine and triamcinolone unilaterally or bilaterally through the posterior approach under C-arm imaging guide. The therapeutic effects were compared with reduction of numeric rating scale (NRS) of pain before and immediately after blockade and symptom-free periods in each group after 12 months. Symptom durations before injections were 16.1+/-9.6, 4.6+/-1.9 and 4.1+/-1.1 months in each MPS, HNP, and WAD groups. The reductions of NRS immediately after the blockade among the three groups were not different. However, the symptom-free duration after blockade lasted longer in the HNP group than the other two groups. In patients with cervical zygapophyseal pain syndromes, the analgesic effect from cervical facet joint blocks lasted longer in cervical HNP than MPS or WAD.