Radiofrequency Ablation

SPINE ARTHRITIS

Your neck, mid-back, low back can get arthritis. We can do steroid or regenerative medicine injections. We can also block the nerves which transmit pain from the spine joint to your brain, do radiofrequency ablations on these nerves.

STEROID & REGENERATIVE MEDICINE INJECTIONS

One option is to put some steroid or regenerative medicine into the arthritic facet joints (where bone meets bone) themselves.

  • Cervical
  • Thoracic
  • Lumbar

MEDIAL BRANCH BLOCK & RADIOFREQUENCY ABLATION

There are nerves, called the medial branch nerves, which provide pain signals from your facets (the joints in your spine) back to your brain. We can perform a test called a medial branch block to see if blocking the pain signal that these nerves emit can give you temporary relief.

If successful, we can consider a radiofrequency ablation (RFA).   The RFA needles are initially placed onto the medial branch nerves and tested.  The RFA needles are heated up to 80 degrees celcius, and this heat treatment ablates these tiny nerves, preventing the pain signal from being transmitted.  This treatment helps with not only spine pain but also with occipital neuralgia headaches.

POTENTIAL RISKS

  • With any injection (even the flu shot), there is a risk of: pain, infection, bruising, damage to skin/muscles/nerve.  Temporary numbness/tingling down the legs can occur from the local anesthetic.
  • Headaches may occur in certain patients; this, too, will resolve.
  • If steroid is used, there may be steroid side effects: allergies, “steroid flush” (warm face), anxiety, mood change, change in menstrual cycle, weight gain. All temporary.
  • For RFAs: numbness, tingling, burning of the skin may be noted after the procedure.
  • Extremely rare: Loss of vision, stroke, paralysis, and death are possible complications of any injection near the spine or the brain. Xray guidance is used to avoid this.
  • Let me know if: you have diabetes, osteoporosis, have a compromised immune function, or have an allergy to contrast dyes or steroids.

HOW LONG WILL THE RFA TREATMENT LAST?

It depends on the patient.  Nerves can grow back but how they grow back varies from person to person.  Some patients do well for more than a year, others followup within the year. I also have patients that have not needed a followup treatment.