Muscle and Tendon Injections
A Muscle or Tendon Injection may be right for you if you have "knots" in your muscles, or extremely painful and tight muscles that fail to relax. You may actually be able to feel the knot or it may twitch or spasm periodically.
What are the anticipated benefits?
Sustained relief from Muscle or Tendon Injections is usually achieved with a brief course of treatment. In addition, the injection helps alleviate your pain allowing you to perform stretching exercises and physical therapy that will help increase blood flow into the area and relax the muscle.
How does it work?
A Muscle or Tendon Injection takes approximately 30 minutes.
You will be positioned on a special table in our Diagnostic and Therapeutic Injections (DTI) suite. The C-arm (a special x-ray machine) can be rotated to allow the radiologist to monitor the injection to make sure he is precise in targeting the pain source. In addition, the table can be easily rotated to help the contrast dye move to the area of interest.
One of our specialized radiologists will insert a thin needle containing contrast material directly into the trigger point. He will inject the contrast material to highlight the anatomy of interest. This will ensure correct placement of the needle for the procedure.
Then, he will slowly release a combination of anti-inflammatory (steroid) and anesthetic (numbing) medications into trigger point to decrease inflammation and relieve the pain. If multiple sites of pain exist, several injections may be required.
Are there any risks or negative side affects?
Complication rates with Muscle or Tendon Injections are very low.
Numbness from the anesthetic may last about an hour and a bruise may form at the injection site. Post-injection pain can be relieved by alternately applying moist heat and ice for a day or two.
As with all injection procedures, the contrast dye contains iodine, so patients with a known allergy to iodine may have an adverse reaction. However, because the contrast is injected into a joint and not a vein, allergic reactions are rare.
The steroid medications used to treat the pain may cause facial flushing, occasional low-grade fevers, hiccups, insomnia, headaches, water retention, increased appetite, increased heart rate, and abdominal cramping or bloating. These side effects are bothersome in only about 5% of patients and commonly disappear within 1-3 days after the injection.
Women should always inform their physician or CDI technologist if there is any possibility that they are pregnant or breast feeding.