What Are Diagnostic Injections?
If you struggle with acute or chronic pain, diagnostic injections are pain management procedures that can help target the source of your symptoms. X-rays, MRIs and CAT scans are excellent imaging procedures that can detect many different disorders, but they do not show the location of where the pain radiates from.
Diagnostic injections of the spine and joints, on the other hand, not only control pain, but they can be used as a diagnostic tool to locate the source of the pain. Many times a pain management injection is used in conjunction with an MRI or CAT exam.
Injections typically offer six to twelve hours of relief from painful symptoms. This is used as a diagnostic result. Your doctor will choose the type of diagnostic injection based on your individual medical history, physical examination and other findings and tests.
The radiologists at Envision Radiology specialize in pain management procedures as well as diagnostic injections. They also have advanced training in musculoskeletal and neuroimaging to ensure your pain injection is safe and accurate.
Uses for Injections
For those living with chronic or acute pain, finding relief can be difficult. Diagnostic injections can offer short-term relief but as well as help your physician come up with a diagnosis and a long-term course of treatment to help you cope with your pain.
What makes diagnostic injections different is that pain relief is used in conjunction with advanced imaging technology to address the source of your pain.
Some of the conditions most commonly managed using these procedures include:
- Joint, shoulder, wrist and hip pain
- Chronic headaches
- Mouth or face pain
- Muscle and bone pain
- Neck pain
What to Expect During the Procedure
Before you undergo a diagnostic injection, you may be asked to abstain from certain medications a few days or hours before the procedure. When you arrive at the imaging center on the day of the procedure, the technologist will ask you some questions. You may then be asked to change into a hospital gown.
Diagnostic injections are performed while you are awake so that you can respond to questions during the procedure. However, you may be given some medication to help you relax. The procedure is done in a sterile setting.
Before you receive the injection, your skin will be cleaned and draped, and numbing medication will be administered into and around the procedure site. Fluoroscopy will be used during the procedure to guide the injection needle to the proper position.
Diagnostic injections commonly used include:
- Anesthetics
- Steroids
- Antibiotics
The main goal of performing a diagnostic injection is to replicate the uncomfortable symptoms you typically feel. This will help us identify the cause of your pain.
