Pain Management

Interventional pain management is a subspecialty of interventional radiology with the goal to relieve, reduce, or manage chronic and/or acute pain in the spine, adjacent muscles, or joints.

At Apex Radiology we provide a full range of pain management interventional procedures including, Joint Injection, Facet Block Injection, Nerve Root Injection, and Steroid Injection. These procedures are minimally invasive and typically involve injection of local anesthetic along with a steroid medication, and usually involve CT or ultrasound image guidance for precise delivery to the area of concern including joints, bursae, tendons, nerve roots and more.

A fully trained Radiologist specialist doctor will use a combination of hydrocortisone and long-acting local anesthetic to inject into or around a bursa, joint, or nerve depending on the cause of pain to provide relief.

Cortisone & Steroid Injection

Cortisone and Steroid injections combine hydrocortisone and a long-acting local anaesthetic, to act as a powerful anti-inflammatory. It can be injected into areas of concern causing pain and inflammation. For sports injuries and pain management, Cortisone and Steroid injections will reduce or eliminate pain associated with:

Bursitis
Arthritis and joint degeneration
Nerve pain, including spine and carpal tunnel
Tendonitis and tenosynovitis – plantar fasciitis, trigger finger, de Quervain’s, tennis and golfer’s elbow
Frozen shoulder – adhesive capsulitis
Ganglion cyst

Depending on the area of pain, CT, fluoroscopy or ultrasound is used to ensure the needle delivering the treatment is exactly within the area suspected of causing pain to maximise pain relief. When a fluid collection is present (such as a ganglion), fluid might be removed to relieve distension before cortisone is injected.

Cortisone is a legal steroid medication.

Nerve Block

People who suffer acute or chronic spine pain affecting the neck, buttocks, legs or arms might benefit from a nerve block injection to achieve temporary pain relief. A nerve block is used to treat a particular nerve or group of nerves by injecting an anaesthetic or anti-inflammatory agent, which will switch-off pain signals or decrease inflammation. CT or fluoroscopy is used for needle guidance, to ensure the needle is correctly placed to maximise pain relief.

Epidural Steroid Injections

Epidural steroid injection is the accurate placement of a very thin needle, at a given level in this space, to inject a steroid and long-acting local anaesthetic. This is performed under the guidance of CT or X-ray as image guidance enables greater accuracy in delivering steroid treatment to the appropriate spinal region.

Your doctor may have referred you for an Epidural if you are suffering from severe or prolonged (chronic) back pain, pain as a result of disc or facet joint problems, or recurrence of back pain after surgery.

Sporting Injury Medical Imaging

Though the health benefits of regular exercise are well known, sporting pursuits often result in injury. Sporting injuries are generally divided into two main groups:

Those which are due to overuse i.e. repetitive action, such as tendinosis, arthritis and stress fractures
Those which are traumatic, such as a shoulder dislocation, or fracture.

Following a clinical assessment by a doctor, many athletes require some form of imaging to confirm the suspected diagnosis and assess its severity. At Apex Radiology we provide a full sports imaging service including general X-Ray, CT, MRI, ultrasound and interventional procedures for acute and chronic musculoskeletal injuries and ailments.

Our expert radiologists, many of whom enjoy sports, understand the complexities of musculoskeletal sports injuries and have the necessary expertise to deal with all facets of sports medicine imaging and image-guided intervention whether common or rare. If you are a healthcare specialist needing expert advice about the best imaging modality for your patient, simply call one of our radiologists to discuss specifics.

Once a diagnosis has been made, imaging-guided treatment, also known as interventional radiology, may be required, such as a platelet-rich plasma (PRP) injection of a muscle tear or cortisone into an inflamed joint. Such procedures are performed at Apex either with the use of ultrasound or CT fluoroscopic guidance.

An Apex Radiologists performing interventional injections on a patients back while they are lying down

Our specialist radiologists have the necessary expertise to deal with all aspects of image guided pain management procedures.

For more information on our services or to book an appointment, please visit our website or phone 1300 209 975.

Pain Management

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