Orthopedic Treatments

The medial branch nerves are small nerve branches that transmit pain from the facet joints (small joints between vertebrae). The nerves do not control any muscles or sensation in your arms or legs. They are located along a boney groove in your back and neck. Your facet joints may be the source of your pain. Therefore, you may benefit from having the small medial branch nerves treated with radiofrequency heat, non-surgically, with a special needle. Before actually treating the nerve with radiofrequency, we first block the nerve signal with numbing medicine as a test. This tells us whether you are likely to benefit from having the medial branch nerves treated at a later date with radiofrequency heat.