Whats the evidence for injections into trigger points or ligaments for long-term back pain?
There’s not much evidence that facet joint injections work for long-term back pain. We found one summary of the research, which included four good-quality studies (called randomised controlled trials). It looked at whether injections into trigger points can help long-term back pain.[1] Altogether, there were 200 people involved in the studies. Some were given an injection of a local anaesthetic and a steroid, and others were given a dummy injection (a placebo). The review found that injections with a steroid and a local anaesthetic were no better at helping back pain than a placebo.References Nelemans PJ, de Bie RA, de Vet HC, et al. Injection therapy for subacute and chronic benign low back pain. In: The Cochrane Library. Wiley, Chichester, UK. Glossary placebo A placebo is a ‘pretend’ or dummy treatment that contains no active substances. A placebo is often given to half the people taking part in medical research trials, for comparison with the ‘real’ treatment. It is made to look an
