Trigger Point Injections (TPI)
Soothe Muscle Pain
Trigger points are painful “knots” in your muscles. These knots form when a muscle can not relax. Sometimes you can feel these knots, or trigger points, when you rub an injured muscle.
Since these trigger points are surrounded by nerves, pain in this area is caused by the irritation of those nerves. However, since your nerves are also connected throughout your body, a trigger point can often cause preferred pain, or pain that is felt in other areas of your body as well. For example a trigger point in your upper trapezius muscle that refers pain into the back of your head region causing a headache.
A trigger point injection may be right for you if your muscle pain has not improved with other treatment, including pain medication and physical therapy.
No referral necessary.
What Are Trigger Point Injections (TPI)?
A trigger point injection can help soothe muscle pain, especially in your arms, legs, lower back and neck. It also can be used to treat symptoms associated with fibromyalgia, tension headaches and other myofascial pain syndromes. By injecting small amounts of anesthetic and steroid into the trigger point, this regenerative medicine treatment can help alleviate pain, not only in the area directly surrounding the trigger point, but other areas of the body connected by the nerves from that area.
Trigger point injections are often part of a plan that includes other treatments, such as muscle stretching and strengthening. Injection procedures in our office are performed by our skilled license nurse practitioners.
What Happens During a TPI?
We first locate your trigger point in a TPI procedure by gently pressing around the painful area. This may cause your muscle to briefly hurt or twitch. However, this step helps locate the exact spot to do the injection. The area is cleaned. Then, our licensed nurse practitioner will insert a small needle into the area. With the injection, the trigger point is made inactive and the pain is alleviated. Often, simply a brief course of treatment will result in sustained relief. If you have more than one trigger point in the muscle, your provider may repeat the process.
What Is The Duration Of The Procedure?
The procedure takes about 10 to 30 minutes. How long it takes depends on how many trigger points are treated. The injections are given in our clinics and, depending on the patient’s need, several sites may be injected in one visit, but the injection itself takes only a few moments.
After a trigger point injection, you can actively use the muscle. However, you should avoid strenuous activity for the first few days. Your doctor may stretch the area to help the muscle relax. At IPM, we like to show our patients how to correctly move and stretch the muscles themselves.
What Are The Risks?
The risk of a complication from a trigger point injection is very low. Complications such as bleeding and infection at the injection site are uncommon. However, you may have temporary soreness or numbness at the injection site. This may last for a few hours to a day or so.
To learn more, call us or book a consultation online today.
Kelly is a board-certified nurse practitioner with full practice authority in the state of Illinois. She received her BSN in 1999 from St. Francis Medical Center College of Nursing in Peoria, IL. She then received her APN from Northern Illinois University in DeKalb, IL in 2011. Kelly is board-certified though American Nurses Credentialing Center as Adult Nurse Practitioner.
As a nurse practitioner, she is able to compliment IPM’s physical therapy and chiropractic work through internal medicine, primary care and telemedicine. Kelly enjoys helping patients to improve their well-being and quality of life, including the offerings and advancements in the field of regenerative medicine.
Kelly Drudi, MSN, APN-BC
Advanced Nurse Practitioner
Regenerative Medicine Services at IPM
The goal of all regenerative medicine is to replace or reboot tissues or organs damaged because of disease, injury, age, or other issues instead of treating symptoms with medication and procedures.
Regenerative medicine is a natural alternative to surgery, pain medications and cortisone/steroid injections. You do not need a doctor’s referral to make an appointment.
At Integrated Physical Medicine, we offer many different treatment forms of regenerative medicine, including:
Is TPI Right For You?
Trigger point injection may be right for you if your muscle pain has not improved with other treatment, including pain medication and physical therapy. Make an appointment today. No referral necessary.