A trigger point is often referred to as an area of palpable knots or taut muscle bands which are quite painfully unbearable. Our physicians, Leovigildo Reyes, MD, Lawrence Eppelbaum, MD and Hamid Tehrani, MD at Back Pain Relief and Consulting in Atlanta, Georgia can treat local areas of muscle pain and spasms through the use of trigger point injections. Localized pain, as well as referred pain patterns patients experience from trigger points, tend to mimic similar pain from a pinched nerve in the neck or lower back. A trial period may be decided by our physicians to determine if the trigger point injections may be the suitable treatment for relieving your pain.

Normal saline, local anesthetics, and small doses of steroid medications are included in the common medicines used in trigger point injections. A variety of studies have been done on trigger point injections that prove their effectiveness in using these types of medications. Similar to acupuncture, research shows that just the local placement of the needle may help with muscle spasms. One thing that affects the muscle spasm is the volume of the solution, and in most times, injections of normal saline are known to be helpful for treating pain.

To help break the cycle of pain, applying a local anesthetic to numb the area of pain is recommended as well as administering a small dose of steroid medication to decrease the inflammation of muscles.

Depending on the response and symptoms you exhibit, our physicians may decide to give you a combination of the medications listed above. Depending on the relief of pain that is provided and the results of the injections, sometimes trigger point injections are repeated in a series. If determined by the physician’s examination findings of trigger points, more than one injection will be performed on various sites.