Objective: To evaluate the prevalence of facet joint pain in atients with chronic low back pain (CLBP) after surgical ntervention(s). Design: A prospective, nonrandomized, consecutive study. Setting: An ambulatory interventional pain management etting. Participants: The prevalence of facet joint pain was evaluted in patients with CLBP after various surgical intervenion(s) referred to an interve...

Lumbar spinal cysts often present with backache and may be accompanied by lower extremity weakness as well as radiation pain if root compression occurs. The treatment regimens include anti-inflammatory drugs, physical therapy, procedures guided by fluoroscopy or computed tomography, and surgery. We report the case of a patient with a symptomatic lumbar spinal cyst at the L4-L5 facet joint. The ...

BACKGROUND The most common cause of low back pain is degenerative disease of the intervertebral disc and other structures of the lumbar spine. However, in some cases other less frequent causes of such pain can be seen, for example septic facet joint arthritis. Until now, only 40 cases of such inflammatory changes within the spine have been reported in the literature. The disease is probably und...

BACKGROUND AND PURPOSE The prevalence of facet joint signal change in acute/subacute lumbar vertebral body compression fractures is unknown. We hypothesized that facet joint signal change on MR imaging is more common in facet joints associated with an acute/subacute lumbar compression fracture than those associated with normal vertebral bodies or ones that have a chronic compression fracture. ...

BACKGROUND AND STUDY AIMS Infiltration therapy (IT) for degenerative spine disease is considered a valuable nonsurgical treatment option in the absence of severe neurologic deficits. The aim of this study was to evaluate the 10-day response to computed tomography (CT)-guided IT and to identify parameters that are positively or negatively associated with short-term outcome. PATIENTS AND METHOD...

Background Related to escalating health care costs and the questionable effectiveness of multiple interventions including lumbar facet joint interventions, cost effectiveness or cost utility analysis has become the cornerstone of evidence-based medicine influencing coverage decisions. Methods Cost utility of therapeutic lumbar facet joint nerve blocks in managing chronic low back pain was per...

BACKGROUND Sagittal spinopelvic alignment changes associated with degenerative facet joint arthritis have been assessed in a few studies. It has been documented that patients with facet joint degeneration have higher pelvic incidence, but the relationship between facet joint degeneration and other sagittal spinopelvic alignment parameters is still disputed. Our purpose was to evaluate the corre...