Using fluoroscopic guidance (fluoroscopy) helps doctors when doing a coccyx injection (tailbone injection) treat coccyx pain (tailbone pain, coccydynia).
(See the video down below if you prefer to watch this as a video.)
- This video is about the use of fluoroscopy, or fluoroscopic guidance, when performing coccyx injections or tailbone injections.
- I’m Dr. Patrick Foye. I’m an M.D., or medical doctor, and I’m the Director of the Coccyx Pain Center, or Tailbone Pain Center, here in the United States. My website online is www.TailboneDoctor.com.
- In this short video, we’re just going to talk a little bit about the benefits of using fluoroscopic guidance when doing or having coccyx injections in the treatment of coccyx pain or tailbone pain.
- Behind me here is the fluoroscopy machine, as shown here, with the screens up there.
- Fluoroscopy is similar in some ways to X-ray, which can be displayed up on a computer screen, except it’s done in very tiny increments—often just a fraction of a second per image.
- When a patient is having an injection for coccyx pain, the very first thing—more important than the injection itself—is that the physician actually does his or her best to make an accurate diagnosis.
- I see this all the time in patients who fly in to see me from around the country.
- They’ve had multiple injections done for tailbone pain, but nobody has actually made a diagnosis as to what’s causing their tailbone pain.
- That’s a problem because, if you don’t have a specific diagnosis, it can be more difficult for the physician to know the target location at or around the tailbone where the injection should be done.
- Assuming that you’ve gone through the appropriate steps to have a specific diagnosis made (this typically includes having coccyx X-rays done while you are sitting and comparing those with the position of the coccyx or tailbone while you are standing)…
- Let’s assume that you’ve had those sitting and standing X-rays done, and they showed a dislocating segment between coccyx bone number three and coccyx bone number four.
- In that case, you would want the injection to target that specific joint, bone, or location where the abnormality was found.
- Unfortunately, what I often see is that physicians will either do the injection “blind,” meaning they’re not using fluoroscopic guidance—they’re just sticking the needle somewhere in the area of the coccyx and injecting steroid, lidocaine, or another local anesthetic, and just hoping for the best.
- Sometimes, that may actually give some benefit for some patients, but it is far from ideal.
- Ideally, you want to have a specific diagnosis when possible (which it is in the majority of patients), and then you want to target the injection to the specific site of abnormality.
- Using the fluoroscopy machine, we can target the specific joint, bone, or abnormality.
- Just to show you a little bit of how this works, this is the fluoroscopy machine right here, with the monitors up here behind me.
- On the table here, I have a plastic model of a pelvis.
- You can see that the coccyx is right down here at the lower part of the spine.
- When I take the fluoroscopic image, as shown here, you can see the details of the coccyx.
- In this case, it’s a plastic model of a coccyx, but it still shows the individual bony segments and the joint spaces between them.
- Here’s the lower tip down here.
- For many patients, there will be a bone spur at the lower tip of the tailbone.
- That diagnosis needs to be made from the patient’s X-rays, MRI, or CT scan, or sometimes it can even be detected on physical examination.
- Then, you want the injection to be specific to the patient’s abnormality.
- By seeing the details on the fluoroscopy screen, I can ensure that I place the needle precisely at the joint, bone, or abnormality in question.
- This way, I can be confident that I’ve achieved good coverage in the correct area.
- Unfortunately, many patients have injections done by physicians who are not as familiar with treating the tailbone.
- They may either perform the injection blindly or, even if they use fluoroscopy, they haven’t properly identified the abnormality.
- As a result, they use fluoroscopy to inject somewhere on the coccyx, but often it’s not the exact place where the patient actually has the abnormality or truly needs the injection.
- This just gives you a general idea of the setup for an injection.
- The patient comes in, we have a fresh sheet on the table, we position them appropriately, and we get the fluoroscopic image displayed on the computer screen.
- Then, we perform the injection accordingly.
- That’s just a little bit about fluoroscopic guidance when it comes to performing coccyx injections.
- If you’re interested in more information about coccyx pain, you can visit my website at www.TailboneDoctor.com.
- If you have tailbone pain and are interested in getting a copy of my book, “Tailbone Pain Relief Now”, you can find it at www.TailboneBook.com, or you can search for “Tailbone Pain Relief Now” on Amazon.
- If you search for “tailbone” along with my last name, “Foye,” the book will come up in the Amazon search results.
- If you’re interested in coming to see me for evaluation and treatment for tailbone pain, the easiest way to find me is through my website, www.TailboneDoctor.com.
- I hope this has been helpful information about the importance and benefits of using fluoroscopic guidance for injections for tailbone pain.
- Okay, bye-bye.
Here is the video:
Here is a photo screenshot from the video:
Fluoroscopic Guidance for Coccyx Injections for Tailbone Pain, coccyx Pain, Dr Foye
To learn more about image-guidance for tailbone injections, go to this Link:
- Link: https://tailbonedoctor.com/image-guidance-for-tailbone-injections-fluoroscopy-for-coccyx-injections/
To get your copy of the book “Tailbone Pain Relief Now!” go to: www.TailboneBook.com or go to Amazon
For more information on coccyx pain, or to be evaluated at Dr. Foye’s Tailbone Pain Center in the United States, go to: www.TailboneDoctor.com
Founder and Director at Tailbone Pain Center
Dr. Foye is an expert at treating tailbone pain (coccyx pain).
His personable, private-practice office is located on a modern, renowned, academic medical school campus, at Rutgers New Jersey Medical School.
For an appointment, call 973-972-2802.
https://tailbonedoctor.com/
His personable, private-practice office is located on a modern, renowned, academic medical school campus, at Rutgers New Jersey Medical School.
For an appointment, call 973-972-2802.
https://tailbonedoctor.com/
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