Ultrasound-guided Cervical Medial Branch Blocks

Montreal General Hospital

Status

Completed

Conditions

Cervical Spondylosis

Neck Pain

Treatments

Procedure: Block

Study type

Observational

Funder types

Other

Identifiers

NCT04852393

2020-21-105-H

Details and patient eligibility

About

In this study we will prospectively examine the safety and clinical effects of ultrasound-guided cervical medial branch blocks.

Full description

While several clinical trials have found that ultrasound guidance provides similar accuracy to fluoroscopy and reduces performance times for cervical medial branch blocks, larger studies documenting safety-related outcomes are lacking. In addition, although cervical medial branch blocks are an accepted tool to diagnose neck pain originating from the cervical facets, there are reports of long-lasting analgesic effects in a subset of patients, suggesting that these blocks may have long-term benefits. We therefore propose to prospectively examine the incidence of adverse events, as well as the clinical long-term effects of ultrasound-guided cervical medial branch blocks, in a cohort of pain clinic patients undergoing these procedures as part of their usual care.

Enrollment

500 patients

Sex

All

Ages

19+ years old

Volunteers

No Healthy Volunteers

Inclusion criteria

Consenting patients over 18 years of age undergoing cervical medial branch blocks as part of their usual care and who have a pain intensity of at least 5/10 (at rest or on movement) and a pain duration of at least 4 months.

Exclusion criteria

Inability to communicate or complete follow up questionnaires
Known bleeding disorder or coagulopathy
Patients on antiplatelet medication other than aspirin and those on anticoagulants (coumadin, AT III agents)
Inability to visualize targeted structures on ultrasound
Presence of acute radiculopathy of new onset neurological symptoms in the upper extremities
Patients with bilateral neck pain if only one side is treated