Treatment of Facet Joint Syndrome

Choe, Joong Rieb; Song, Chan Woo; Lee, Kyung Sook

Abstract

The common disorder called facet syndrome exhibits lower back pain, with or without, radiating pain to buttock and thigh due to facet joint arthropathy. Many physicians have believed that the usual lesion of facet syndrome was an anatomical impairments of facet joint itself. So facet joint block has been known only as a therapeutic and diagnostic modality of facet syndrome. Based on clinical experience and anatomical study, we have concluded varying opinions from common sense about facet syndrome. Pain in the facet joint is supposedly the secondary effect of narrowing of joint space by sustained muscle contracture around joints. We therefore conclude that spasmolytic treatment of muscles connecting the two vertebral articular space would be better for treatment and diagnosis of facet syndrome rather than facet block with local anesthetic and steroid only.