Radiofrequency Ablation of Genicular Nerves for Advanced Osteoarthrosis of the Knee Joint 1 Year Follow-up.

Hospital General de Jerez de la Frontera

Status

Completed

Conditions

Painful Osteoarthritis of the Knee

Treatments

Procedure: RF treatment

Radiation: radiofrequency ablation

Device: ultrasound

Study type

Interventional

Funder types

Other

Identifiers

NCT02688543

RF knee 001

Details and patient eligibility

About

Pharmacological treatment of pain due to osteoarthritis of the knee often proves to be inadequate and/or cause intolerable side effects. Arthroplasty of the knee may offer a solution, but waiting lists may be long or certain patients may not be apt for a surgical intervention. Therefore an alternative pain treatment that is effective and has little side effects allowing to offer pain relief to those difficult to manage patients would be an added value in the therapeutic options.

We studies the short and long-term effects of radio frequency treatment of the genicular nerves in patients with severe pain due to osteoarthritis of the knee.

Full description

Radio frequency treatment (RF) of the genicular nerves was found to be effective in a randomized controlled trial. Because of the blinding patients were allowed to continue pre-intervention pharmacological treatment, which may have interfered with the outcome. The short follow-up (12 weeks) does not allow drawing conclusion on the duration of the effect.

We aimed at assessing the pain reducing effect of RF of the genicular nerves and the duration of the effect.

Enrollment

25 patients

Sex

Volunteers

No Healthy Volunteers

Inclusion criteria

patients suffering from pain caused by osteoarthrosis of the knee joint
osteoarthrosis of the knee joint (grade 3-4 according to the Kellgren Lawrence classification)
pain of moderate to severe intensity (VAS≥5, on a 10-point scale) during >3 months
pain resistant to conservative treatments

Exclusion criteria

acute knee pain associated with radicular neuropathy or intermittent claudication, connective tissue diseases affecting the knee, serious neurologic or psychiatric disorders, mental deterioration impeding adequate communication or collaboration, injection with steroids or hyaluronic acids during the previous 3 months, anticoagulant medications, pacemakers, and prior electro-acupuncture treatment