Principles & Practice of Pain Medicine > Part II. Pain: General Principles and Evaluation > Chapter 11. Diagnostic Injections for Spine Pain Conor W. O'Neill, Richard Derby, and Laura R. Kenderes

Diagnostic Injections for Spine Pain: Introduction

"Identifying the specific pathology responsible for spinal pain is often difficult. This is particularly true given the high incidence of anatomic abnormalities in asymptomatic individuals, and the presence of normal anatomy in some painful individuals, at least as demonstrated on conventional imaging studies.^1,2 The primary purpose of diagnostic injections for chronic spinal pain is to identify which anatomic structure of the spine is causing pain and what is the pathologic disorder affecting it. Before performing these injections, the clinical utility of making an anatomic diagnosis should be well established...."