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Trigger Point Injections
Trigger point or field block injections. Trigger points are areas where muscles and surrounding fibrous (fascial) tissue are sensitive to touch. Trigger points are generally in your upper and lower back muscles, but they may occur elsewhere. Trigger point injections are used when muscles are sensitive to touch and are the source of pain. Depending on the medication used, trigger point injections can reduce pain in the muscle, reduce inflammation or relax a muscle. In this procedure, an anesthetic is injected into specific areas in the back that are painful when the doctor applies pressure to them. Some doctors add a steroid medication to the injection. Although the injections are commonly used, researchers have found that injecting anesthetics and/or steroids into trigger points provides no more relief than "dry needling," or inserting a needle and not injecting a medication. A physician may inject the muscle with a preparation of local anesthetic and corticosteroid. This may reduce pain and promote increased movement. The local anesthetic initially numbs the area to reduce pain while the corticosteroid reduces inflammation. The corticosteroid begins working in 3 to 4 days and may provide long-term reduction of inflammation and pain. Sometimes an anesthetic alone is used if there is little or no inflammation and the goal is to relax the muscle for more effective stretching.
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