Patients suffer from many different types of pain and in many different areas of the body. There are also various treatment options to reduce or eliminate pain. One of these options is trigger point injections or TPI. When muscles fail to relax, they often form muscle knots or trigger points that are very painful. Many times these muscle knots can be felt under the skin. Trigger point injections can be used to make the muscle knot inactive to eliminate the pain.
Trigger point injections are performed by the doctor in the office. This outpatient procedure includes a local anesthetic or saline that is injected into the trigger point. Many times a steroid is added to the combination of the injection. This usually results in sustained pain relief with just one injection.
TPI is used to treat many different areas of the body:
Neck
Lower Back
Legs
Arms
Head to treat headaches
Are there risks with trigger point injections?
Risks or side effects are low, but they do occur. Occasionally bleeding occurs at the injection site. Patients may also experience soreness at the site, similar to what some patients experience with a flu shot. Other times patients will feel numbness at the site of injection. These side effects are generally seen as mild compared to the pain relief results that patients experience.
How frequently will patients need a trigger point injection?
The ultimate goal is to eliminate pain after just one injection. The success rate after one treatment is high if the patient only has one trigger point. These muscle knots recur when the patient has chronic conditions such as fibromyalgia or another underlying problem. When this happens, injections can be scheduled on an as needed basis to provide optimal pain relief. When anesthetics are used, treatment can be administered as frequently as monthly. However, when a steroid is used treatments must be administered much less frequently. The reason is due to the risk of tissue damage from frequent use of steroids.
How to find the right doctor to administer trigger point injections?
Many different doctor specialties perform these injections in their office. However, pain management physicians perform these trigger point injections on a regular basis and have the experience to deal with complicated cases. Dr. Tod Aust at Dr. Aust Interventional Pain has the experience and skill set to effectively treat these trigger points and get you pain free faster!
Dr. Aust has offices in Slidell, Metairie, and Thibodaux. Call us today to schedule your appointment and get started living your pain free life!
985-377-1884
“We believe most patients can achieve optimal pain management with little to no chronic oral opioids, and use interventions to reduce or eliminate oral opioid use”.
Dr. Tod Aust
