The medial nerves carry pain signals to the spine’s facet joints, which can lead to debilitating pain. A medial branch block injects medicine to prevent the nerve from relaying pain signals. Doctors use the block as a diagnostic tool. Improperly functioning medial nerves can cause conditions such as golfer’s elbow, which can be treated without surgery.
The medial nerves, or medial branch nerves, carry pain signals to the facet joints of the spine. From there, those pain signals are relayed to the brain, which in turn makes the body aware of the pain. The facet joints connect each vertebrae of the spine and also determine the range of motion in the neck. The medial branch nerves originate from the cervical nerves which supply impulses to the muscles and skin, particularly in the forearms and hands. There are also medial plantar nerves located in the foot.
Properly functioning medial nerves can lead to debilitating pain, such as low back pain, simply by being the source from which the brain is informed of the pain impulse. This led to a pain treatment known as a medial branch block. Doctors who perform such a block inject the medicine into an area of the spine outside of a joint but close to the nerve or nerves that control the area’s pain impulses. It doesn’t necessarily fix the underlying medical condition, but it prevents the medial nerve from relaying pain signals to the spine for transmission to the brain, leaving the body unaware that it should hurt.
A medial nerve block that fails to relieve pain is considered a treatment failure but serves as a diagnostic tool for doctors, who use the ongoing pain to determine that the joint is not the problem. Pain that goes away for a short time before returning tells doctors that the problem is the joint, but the medicine used, sometimes steroids, has been ineffective. Pain that goes away, comes back, and goes away tells doctors that the blockage had therapeutic value and can be repeated as needed. Medial nerve blocks may only last a short time, but such short-term therapy can lead doctors to perform another procedure that has similar but longer-lasting effects.
Improperly functioning medial nerves can also be a problem, although many related conditions are easily treated without surgery. Excessive pressure on the medial nerve can lead to conditions such as medial epicondylitis or golfer’s elbow. The condition is a form of tendonitis caused by stress on the muscles that bend the wrists forward. Surgery is rarely needed in the treatment of golfer’s elbow because the pain usually eases when the affected muscles are allowed to rest. Strengthening and stretching exercises after the pain has subsided can help prevent the condition from returning.
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