Medial branch radiofrequency ablation outcomes in patients with centralized pain
Morffi D, Larach DB, Moser SE, Goesling J, Hassett AL, Brummett CB
https://rapm.bmj.com/content/early/2019/04/30/rapm-2018-100275.info
In this study, we assessed the role of centralized pain in RFA (radiofrequency ablation) outcomes. We conducted a prospective, observational study of 55 patients undergoing RFA. Our results showed that patients with higher fibromyalgia scores had less improvement in overall body pain with equal improvement in back pain across the cohort. Patients also had significant improvement in anxiety, physical function, catastrophizing, and sleep disturbance at 3-months post-RFA. We concluded that centralized pain patients may have less improvement in overall pain but may have equal improvement in their site-specific pain levels after localized interventions.
