Managing Back Pain with Radiofrequency

Illustration: ADAM

According to Science Daily and the Mayo Clinic Health Letter, people with painful spinal arthritis may do well by having radiofrequency ablation treatment. Also known as radiofrequency denervation, this is an outpatient pain management procedure that either stuns or destroys the nervous tissue carrying signals of pain to the brain. It works by damaging the nerve with heat, thereby deactivating it. The theory behind the treatment is that if the nerves carrying pain messages don’t work, then you won’t be able to feel the pain. About.com’s Arthritis guides, Carol and Rick Eustice have the details. Radiofrequency denervation is also used for back pain from disk and facet joint problems.

However, the Cochrane Collaboration, a non-profit organization that reviews medical research studies and reports the results to the public in plain language*, found only limited evidence that this procedure can provide the sought after relief. While their review was last updated 4 years ago, in 2003, it did show that at best, radiofrequency denervation only offers pain relief for certain people with specific neck conditions, and only partial pain relief at that. Evidence for relief of low back pain was conflicting, and for disk problems in the low back, there was some evidence that the procedure gave no relief at all.

* I am a consumer reviewer for the Cochrane Back Group, which means I look at their work and provide comment as to how it might answer the questions of non-medical people with back pain.

| More about Radiofrequency for Spinal Arthritis | Pain Management | Nervous Tissue |

_{Sources:
Niemisto L, Kalso E, Malmivaara A, Seitsalo S, Hurri H,. ,Radiofrequency denervation for neck and back pain. Cochrane Database of Systematic Reviews 2003, Issue 1. Art. No.: CD004058. DOI: 10.1002/14651858.
Science Daily Press Release New Treatment for Chronic Arthritis-Related Back Pain Oct 6 2007}