How to Use Trigger Point Injections for Pain Management

If you have ever felt a knot of painful muscles under your skin, you have felt what doctors refer to as a trigger point. In some cases, these knots can cause discomfort in the nerves that surround them, resulting in pain that is felt either in that location or in a separate region of the body. Trigger point injections have been successfully used to manage this type of pain. Read on to learn how to use trigger point injections for pain management.

Instructions

1. Use this approach to address muscle pain in the arms, legs, neck and back. It may also be used for pain management involving fibromyalgia, tension headaches and myofascial pain syndrome.

2. Know what to expect. If you choose to use trigger point injections for pain management, your trigger point will be pricked with a needle that may contain a corticosteroid. If the treatment is successful, your trigger point will be soothed and your pain will dissipate.

3. Keep in mind that injections are administered to soft tissue. Nerves, bones, joints, blood vessels and the spinal canal will not be directly addressed.

4. Understand that your trigger point injections will be given in a doctor's office or pain management facility, and not a hospital. The process typically takes no more than a few minutes.

5. Take a time-saving approach to trigger point injections. If you have pain in several areas, know that more than one trigger point may be treated in a single visit.

6. Know what your options are if you have allergies or sensitivities to certain medications. If you need to avoid certain drugs, your injections may be given using a medication-free, dry needle technique.

7. Expect your doctor to request that you schedule follow-up visits. These visits are used by your doctor to evaluate your progress and judge whether the treatment is working. This kind of monitoring is an essential precursor to further injections, should they be deemed necessary.

Tips & Warnings

• For optimum results, combine your trigger point pain management program with an exercise regimen targeted toward strengthening and relaxing the areas in which pain is experienced.

• Know the risks associated with getting multiple trigger point injections in the same location. To achieve the desired outcome, it may be necessary to get more than one injection in the trigger point being treated, but it is not recommended that you exceed three injections in the same spot. Do so and the end result could be scarring and muscle damage.

• If pain management isn't achieved after two trigger point injections, realize that the treatment likely won't give you the results you need, and pursue other options.