Cervical Facet Joint Imaging-Guided Injections: A Comparison of Outcomes in Patients Referred Based on Imaging Findings Vs Palpation for Pain

A greater proportion of DC-referred patients (injection level based on palpation for pain) reported “improvement” at all follow-up time points. This finding reached statistical significance at 1 week. These findings may be because DCs use palpation for pain to determine injection level whereas MDs rely more on imaging findings. The results suggest that the reported moderate results of facet injections partially may be due to the inaccurate selection of the spinal level treated.