Low back pain can result from muscle sprain, ligament strain, facet joint pain or damaged intervertebral discs (discogenic pain). Besides trauma or injury, the commonest cause for low back pain is age-related degeneration. Facet joints are the small joints between the bones in the spine. Besides causing low back pain, damaged discs can also press onto nerves and lead to sciatica – shooting pain that radiates into the legs.

In general, painkillers, physiotherapy and early mobilization will help about 80% of all cases of low back pain. Patients who do not recover despite conservative management may require interventional pain therapy.

These include muscle trigger point injections, epidural steroid injections, nerve root blocks, facet joint injections, disc decompression (nucleoplasty), annuloplasty, transdiscal biacuplasty as well as radiofrequency ablation. Depending on the source of your pain, your doctor will advise you on the appropriate therapy.