Facet Disease Facts

Facet Disease Treatment Options: Reasons Why Laser Spine Surgery Is the Better Choice

Having arthritis in one knee or hip is bad enough, but arthritis in the facet joints - the many joints running down the spinal column - can mean agony that extends from the shoulders to the thighs. Facet disease is basically defined as arthritis or degeneration in one or more facet joints, causing pain in the joints themselves as well as pain that radiates to the hips, thighs, shoulders, and arms. This pain, in addition to overall stiffness, can limit your ability to work, play golf, garden, walk through a store, and even tie your shoes.

Facet Disease Treatment: Our 5-Day Process to Rediscovering Life without Back Pain

If you have facet disease, you are familiar with the deep, dull ache that radiates from your back to your legs, hips, shoulders, and arms. You also may experience stiffness throughout your back and neck, especially when you try to get out of a chair or turn your body. Facet disease also can lead to headaches and other symptoms that make it difficult to do anything except stay in bed. Being in this much pain can make anyone’s life miserable, so it goes without saying that men and women with facet disease are searching for a treatment that will provide them with the fastest relief possible.

Facet Disease Surgery: Top Reasons Why You Should Choose LSI for Minimally Invasive Treatment

Your facet disease may go by many terms such as facet arthritis, facet joint syndrome, degenerative facet joints, and facet hypertrophy. All of these terms basically mean that one or more of your facet joints is being affected by arthritis or another form of degeneration. Since your facet joints are what give your back the ability to move, bend, and stretch, facet disease can greatly impede your range of motion. This disease also can cause pain that radiates from the affected facet joint to other areas of your body such as your hips, legs, shoulders, and arms.

Many Facet Disease Patients Are Perfect Candidates for LSI’s Minimally Invasive Procedures

Most of us take the flexibility of our spinal column for granted. We can all thank our facet joints for making our spinal column as flexible as it is. Facet joints are links between the vertebrae (or bones) of our spine. With a facet joint directly above and below each vertebra, our spinal column is built to bend and stretch as we do.

When facet disease affects these vital joints, you will experience pain in the joint and in related parts of the body. What this means is, if you have facet disease in the lower back, pain can radiate to the hips and thighs. Likewise, if facet disease is in the neck, pain can travel to the shoulders and arms.

Thoracic Facet Injection

Depending on the number of affected areas, one injection can last several months and in some instances it can bring long-term pain relief. If there are injuries to multiple areas, one injection may only provide relief to some of the symptoms.

Cervical Facet Syndrome

When suffering from cervical facet syndrome, the facet joints become inflamed and may bring with it soreness and or stiffness. Cervical facet joint pain can be felt in the areas of the base of the skull, upper back and shoulders, mid-back or neck.

What is Facet Syndrome

The vertebrae of the bony spine are designed to stack together and provide a movable support structure for the body as well as protection for the spinal cord from injury. The spinal cord is the nervous tissue extending from the brain and down the spinal column.

Facet Thermal Ablation

With cartilage that lines the joint allowing bones to glide smoothly over each other and a capsule surrounding the joint, a facet joint is pretty much the same as any other joint in your body.

Facet Joint Aspiration

Although it isn’t clear exactly what the cause of a synovial cysts is, it is generally accepted that they are related to the development of facet joint degeneration. This theory is thought to be most accurate because of the proximity of the cyst to the degenerated joint. Patients suffering from rheumatoid arthritis have also been observed with synovial cysts.

Facet Hypertrophy

When considering the onset of spinal conditions it is important to understand the relationship that your spine has with the rest of your body. One of the duties of your spine is to give your body support and carry the majority of its weight. The vertebrae in the spine bear the majority of this weight, which is then spread to bones in the back portion of each vertebra called the facet joints.

Facet Disease Treatment

Facet disease, which can also be referred to as facet arthritis, is rarely the only cause of a patient’s lower back pain. People suffering from facet disease will most often have other conditions such as DDD (degenerative disc disease), spinal stenosis and arthritis in other parts of their spine contributing to the symptoms.