Facet Injections are given to those suffering with low back pain from arthritis of the spine. The vertebral bones meet together with each other and with the bones above in the thoracic spine and below in the sacrum at joints called the facet joints. These are major weight-bearing joints that support about 60% of your upper body weight. They are also shockingly small – about the size of your thumb joint. Facet joints can develop arthritis just like a knee or hip. In a facet joint injection, anti-inflammatory medication is injected into the arthritic facet joints while using fluoroscopic guidance to improve low back pain. Sometimes this procedure works for many months. If, however, the procedure helps significantly, but for only a brief period of time, a radiofrequency ablation can be considered (see below).