Minimally invasive interventional pain procedures, such as thermal radiofrequency (TRF) ablation, have steadily progressed to become a key segment of the therapeutic armamentarium now available to the chronic pain patient population. Conventional monopolar or bipolar TRF uses the application of heat (temperature up to 85°C) to thermo-coagulate and ablate branches of spinal nerve roots or other neural tissue, thus interrupting pain signal transmission. Here, we report real world-collected outcomes from a study of patients treated with TRF for management of chronic pain.

This is a real-world, retrospective, observational, case-series study of patients in Europe who underwent a radiofrequency-based procedure for chronic pain and were treated using a variety of disposable Electrodes and Cannulas with the G4 Generator (Boston Scientific, Valencia, CA USA) such as: the Flextrode for the intervertebral disc, Side Kick RF cannulas and the Palisade guide for the RF of the sacroiliac joint and the medial branch of the facet joints, the RCE Electrode and RF cannulas with blunt active tip for the (epidural) pulsed RF of the nerve roots and epidural space. Key data and clinical assessments include demographic characteristics, pain diagnosis, baseline, and post-treatment pain scores (Numeric Rating Scale, NRS), and percent pain relief.

Eighty-four patients who received thermal RF for treatment of chronic pain of the facet joints, the intervertebral disc, and thesacroiliac joint have been assessed to date. Significant improvement (p<0.0001) in NRS pain scores was noted at mean last follow-up visit (mean duration: 296 days). This consisted of a reduction in NRS pain scores from 8.0 at baseline to 3.3 at last follow-up. An 81% responder rate (proportion of patients with >30% pain relief ) was also noted at mean last follow-up. Additional data to be presented

Preliminary data from this ongoing, European, multicenter, observational case-series of 84 chronic pain patients (no new onset of pain at follow up) who utilized thermal radiofrequency demonstrate significant reduction in pain (4.8-points NRS score reduction, p<0.0001) at last follow-up (mean = 296 days).