Sacroiliac (SI) Joint Steroid Injection in Palm Coast, FL

Pain that sits low and to one side often traces back to the sacroiliac joint — and an injection placed inside that joint can both confirm it and calm it.

What it treats

This injection is our most direct tool for pain arising from the joint between the spine and the pelvis:

It’s especially valuable when imaging has come back unremarkable but your pain keeps pointing at the same spot, just off the midline at or below the belt line.

How it works

The sacroiliac joint is a true joint, though an unusual one: its lower portion is synovial — lined with cartilage and enclosed in a capsule — while its upper portion is bound tightly by dense ligament. That synovial part can become inflamed like any other joint. This procedure places medication directly into that joint space: a local anesthetic, which temporarily interrupts pain signals coming from the joint, and a corticosteroid, which reduces the inflammation driving them.

The diagnostic half of that pairing does real work. Because the SI joint frequently looks normal on imaging, a clear response to anesthetic placed accurately inside the joint is often the strongest evidence available that this is your pain source.

Dr. Manuel López, a board-certified pain management and rehabilitation physician, performs the injection under precise image guidance, confirming the needle has entered the joint space itself before delivering anything.

What to expect

This is an outpatient procedure — you arrive, it’s done, and you go home the same day.

• Before: you’re positioned face down and the skin over the joint is cleaned and numbed with local anesthetic.
• During: guided by imaging, Dr. López advances a thin needle into the joint space, confirms the position, and delivers the medication. Pressure is common; sharp pain is not the expectation.
• After: you’ll go home the same day, and should arrange a ride.

The most useful thing you can do afterward is test the movements that normally hurt — standing up from a chair, taking the stairs, rolling over in bed — and note what changed. With this joint, that specific record is the diagnostic result.

Is it right for you?

This injection tends to fit patients who:

• Have one-sided buttock or low back pain that worsens with standing from a seated position
• Have been treated for a disc or nerve problem without meaningful improvement
• Need a definitive answer about whether the SI joint is involved before considering anything further

Because this is an injection into a joint, anything that raises infection or bleeding risk gets reviewed first — an active infection anywhere in the body, a bleeding disorder, or blood thinners prescribed for another condition. None of these are automatic disqualifications, but all of them change the planning. Bring your medication list and imaging, and Dr. López will give you a straight assessment.

Find out where the pain is coming from

If one side of your low back has been aching for months while the scans keep coming back clean, this is how that question gets settled.

Call (386) 222-7746 or request an appointment.