Sacroiliac Joint Injection
A Sacroiliac (SI) Joint Injection may benefit you if you experience pain in the low back, buttocks, abdomen, groin or legs.
What are the anticipated benefits?
The amount of immediate relief experienced during the injection will help confirm or deny the joint as a source of pain. The cortisone (steroid) will help to reduce any inflammation that may exist within the joint(s).
How does it work?
An SI Joint Injection takes approximately 30 minutes.
You will lie on your stomach 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 SI Joint space, the region of your low back and buttocks where your pelvis joins the spine. 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 SI Joint 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.
Your leg(s) may feel numb for a few hours. This is fairly uncommon, but does occasionally happen.
Women should always inform their physician or CDI technologist if there is any possibility that they are pregnant or breast feeding.