Chang MC, Yang S. Effectiveness of pulsed radiofrequency on the medial cervical branches for cervical facet joint pain. World J Clin Cases 2022; 10(22): 7720-7727 [PMID: 36158472 DOI: 10.12998/wjcc.v10.i22.7720]
Corresponding Author of This Article
Seoyon Yang, MD, PhD, Assistant Professor, Department of Rehabilitation Medicine, School of Medicine, Ewha Woman's University Seoul Hospital, 260 Gonghang-daero, Gangseo-gu, Seoul 07804, South Korea. mssyang@ewha.ac.kr
Research Domain of This Article
Orthopedics
Article-Type of This Article
Retrospective Study
Open-Access Policy of This Article
This article is an open-access article which was selected by an in-house editor and fully peer-reviewed by external reviewers. It is distributed in accordance with the Creative Commons Attribution Non Commercial (CC BY-NC 4.0) license, which permits others to distribute, remix, adapt, build upon this work non-commercially, and license their derivative works on different terms, provided the original work is properly cited and the use is non-commercial. See: http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc/4.0/
World J Clin Cases. Aug 6, 2022; 10(22): 7720-7727 Published online Aug 6, 2022. doi: 10.12998/wjcc.v10.i22.7720
Effectiveness of pulsed radiofrequency on the medial cervical branches for cervical facet joint pain
Min Cheol Chang, Seoyon Yang
Min Cheol Chang, Department of Physical Medicine and Rehabilitation, College of Medicine, Yeungnam University, Taegu 42415, South Korea
Seoyon Yang, Department of Rehabilitation Medicine, School of Medicine, Ewha Woman's University Seoul Hospital, Seoul 07804, South Korea
Author contributions: Chang MC conceived and designed the paper; Yang S collected the data; both Chang MC and Yang S analyzed the data, contributed to the writing of the manuscript, and approved the final draft of the manuscript; and All authors have read and agreed to the submitted version of the manuscript.
Supported byNational Research Foundation of Korea, No. NRF2021R1A2C1013073.
Institutional review board statement: The Institutional Review Board of Yeungnam university hospital approved this study, and the need for written informed consent was waived due to the retrospective design of the study.
Conflict-of-interest statement: The authors declare no conflict of interest.
Informed consent statement: This study was conducted retrospectively, and there was the need for written informed consent was waived.
Open-Access: This article is an open-access article that was selected by an in-house editor and fully peer-reviewed by external reviewers. It is distributed in accordance with the Creative Commons Attribution NonCommercial (CC BY-NC 4.0) license, which permits others to distribute, remix, adapt, build upon this work non-commercially, and license their derivative works on different terms, provided the original work is properly cited and the use is non-commercial. See: https://creativecommons.org/Licenses/by-nc/4.0/
Corresponding author: Seoyon Yang, MD, PhD, Assistant Professor, Department of Rehabilitation Medicine, School of Medicine, Ewha Woman's University Seoul Hospital, 260 Gonghang-daero, Gangseo-gu, Seoul 07804, South Korea. mssyang@ewha.ac.kr
Received: September 29, 2021 Peer-review started: September 29, 2021 First decision: April 7, 2022 Revised: April 26, 2022 Accepted: June 16, 2022 Article in press: June 16, 2022 Published online: August 6, 2022 Processing time: 296 Days and 6.9 Hours
ARTICLE HIGHLIGHTS
Research background
Cervical facet joint pain (CFP) is one of the most common causes of neck pain and headache. Persistent CFP deteriorates the quality of life of patients and reduces their productivity at work.
Research motivation
In order to investigate the effectiveness of pulsed radiofrequency (PRF) stimulation of cervical medial branches in patients with chronic CFP.
Research objectives
The authors aim to investigate the effectiveness of PRF stimulation of cervical medial branches in patients with chronic CFP.
Research methods
The authors retrospectively included 21 consecutive patients (age = 50.9 ± 15.3 years, range 26-79 years; male: female = 8:13; pain duration = 7.7 ± 5.0 mo) with chronic CFP, defined as ≥ 4 on the numeric rating scale (NRS). The authors performed PRF stimulation on the cervical medial branches.
Research results
The outcomes of the PRF procedure were evaluated by comparing the NRS scores for CFP before treatment and 1 and 3 mo after treatment. Successful pain relief was defined as a ≥ 50% reduction in the NRS score at 3 mo when compared with the pretreatment NRS score.
Research conclusions
PRF stimulation of the cervical medial branches may be used as an alternative treatment method in patients with CFP. PRF can effectively alleviate CFP, and is safe to perform.
Research perspectives
PRF stimulation on cervical medial branches may be a useful therapeutic option to control chronic CFP.
