The Spine

CT-guided infiltrations

What is that?

Infiltration is administered exactly at the desired site under CT control.

What medication is administered?

A local anaesthetic and if necessary additional cortisone.

In what situations are these special infiltrations useful?

These infiltrations can be administered in addition to other measures (such as conventional infiltrations, acupuncture, chiropractic medicine, physical therapy or remedial gymnastics) in case of strong back pain (lumbago, lumbalgia) when the structure causing the pain is a slipped disc or an abraded vertebral joint. Sometimes the infiltrations are also used as an additional diagnostic procedure.

What are the typical complications that may occur?

The effect of the medication may cause transient weakness/paralysis in a leg. This persists for a maximum period of 6 to 8 hours.

CT-guided nerve root infiltration for a slipped disk

The painful nerve root is visualised by computed tomography. The infiltration needle can be advanced exactly to the target region under CT control and the medication can be injected exactly at the nerve root. This procedure provides rapid pain relief and, in ambiguous settings, also serves as a diagnostic procedure.

CT-guided facet joint infiltration

Facet joints are small vertebral joints subject to painful abrasion like all other joints. As they are located deep and at a large distance from the surface of the body, they are not easily accessible to usual infiltration. Therefore it is advisable to perform a computed-tomography-guided infiltration. The position of the needle is checked, corrected if necessary, and the medication is injected exactly at the painful facet joint. This procedure also usually results in rapid pain relief or may be used as an additional diagnostic method.