Summertime is golfing season in Minnesota, and it’s one of our favorite pastimes when the weather permits. Along with the increase in golf activity during the summer season, our medical practice, iSpine Pain Physicians, tends to see a fair amount of patients visiting us because their golf game has been limited due to back pain.

While back pain can be a complex disease with a variety of possible etiologies and contributing factors there seems to be a reoccurring association of back pain in golfers. Whether the activity of golf was the source of the injury or some other injury to the spine inhibits the golfer from playing the game; it appears that a common cause of back pain in golfers is an injury to a facet joint. 

Most people know what a lumbar disc is. They have heard of disc bulges or disc herniations but the facet joint is a less known entity. In fact, the facet joint is doubly more common than a lumbar disc. Every level of the spine, for example, L4-5, is a segment made up of L4 vertebrae connected to L5 vertebrae with a disc in the front of the segment and two facet joints in the back of the segment.

These joints limit our ability to extend our back or twist our back. When these joints are injured, it’s common for an individuals to experience pain when extending or twisting their back. Hence, the association with back pain in golfers, as with a typical golf swing, there is a fair amount of twisting and extension of the back.

Sometimes, injuries to the facet joint may cause acute back pain and other times they may be the source of chronic back pain. Either way, they may limit an individual’s golf game due to back pain. Usually, treatment of this condition involves physical therapy, medications (such as muscle relaxants and anti-inflammatories), time, and activity modification.

In some individuals, however, the treatment may progress to more invasive options. A procedure that has been developed in more recent years has become a very common, low-risk option in treating this condition. It’s called a lumbar facet joint nerve ablation. 

If you were to plug this term into Google, you would be able to find more information than you need about this procedure. Basically, the procedure is a technique that allows your physician to ablate a small nerve, which supplies the painful lumbar facet joint. The procedure is performed as an injection and no surgery is involved. It is an out-patient procedure that is typically performed with a mild IV sedation.

The procedure is low risk in the grand scheme of spinal interventions and the nerve supply to the facet joint eventually regenerates, making the procedure a reversible thing. It usually takes the nerve approximately one year to grow back, and if the pain returns in that time, the procedure can simply be repeated. The studies performed on this procedure seem to suggest that this may be safe to perform on an indefinite basis.

The end goal of the procedure, for the golfer, is to relieve their back pain, so they can complete a full day of golf without much discomfort. As stated before, in golfers, there seems to be a trend with back pain that is associated with their swing. With extension and rotation of the back, it’s commonly associated with a lumbar facet joint injury. For those individuals who have failed more conservative options, such as physical therapy, a facet joint nerve ablation procedure may be a reasonable and safe option in relieving back pain and improving their game.

iSpine Pain Physicians has offices in Maple Grove, Chaska, Crystal, and Delano. Call (763) 201-8191 to schedule an appointment with a board-certified specialist. You can also visit online or on Facebook to learn more about their services.