Ultrasound-guided genicular nerve pulsed radiofrequency treatment for painful knee osteoarthritis: A preliminary report

Background: genicular nerve ablation with radiofrequency (rf) has recently emerged as a promising treatment in the management of osteoarthritis related knee pain. to date,genicular nerve injections have been performed under fluoroscopic guidance. objective: to evaluate the effect of ultrasound-guided genicular nerve pulsed rf treatment on chronic knee pain and function in patients with knee osteoarthritis. study design: single-arm prospective study. setting: university hospital and rehabilitation center in turkey. methods: a review was made of 29 patients with medial knee osteoarthritis who had undergone genicular nerve block in the previous 6 months. patients with at least 50% reduction in the visual analog scale (vas) score after genicular nerve block and with no on-going pain relief were selected for the study. ultrasound-guided genicular nerve pulsed rf was applied to 15 knees of 9 patients. pain and knee function were assessed with 100-mm vas and western ontario and mcmaster universities (womac) index throughout 3 months. results: a significant reduction in vas scores was detected over time after the pulsed rf procedure (f: 69.24,p < 0.01). there was a significant improvement in the womac scores (f: 539.68,p < 0.01). limitations: the small number of participants,the lack of a control group,and short followup period were limitations of the study. conclusions: genicular nerve pulsed rf treatment has been found to be safe and beneficial in osteoarthritis related knee pain. further studies with a larger population and randomized controlled study design are warranted to confirm the positive findings of this preliminary report. © 2016,american society of interventional pain physicians. all rights reserved.